The University of Pittsburgh (commonly referred to as Pitt) is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

In 1787 after the American Revolutionary War, it was founded on the edge of the American frontier as the Pittsburgh Academy.

It developed and was renamed as Western University of Pennsylvania by a change to its charter in 1819.

After surviving two devastating fires and various relocations within the area, the school moved to its current location in the Oakland neighborhood of the city; it was renamed as the University of Pittsburgh in 1908.

For most of its history, Pitt was a private institution, until 1966 when it became part of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education.

A university ("a whole", "a corporation") is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which grants academic degrees in various academic disciplines.

Universities typically provide undergraduate education and postgraduate education.

The liberal arts (Latin: artes liberales) are those subjects or skills that in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free person (Latin: liberalis, "worthy of a free person") to know in order to take an active part in civic life, something that (for Ancient Greece) included participating in public debate, defending oneself in court, serving on juries, and most importantly, military service.

Grammar, logic, and rhetoric were the core liberal arts, while arithmetic, geometry, the theory of music, and astronomy also played a (somewhat lesser) part in education.