This is a list of colleges and universities in Arizona . This list also includes other educational institutions providing higher education, meaning tertiary, quaternary, and, in some cases, post-secondary education.
| School | Location | Control | Carnegie Classification | Enrollment [1] (Fall 2022) | Founded |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona State University | Tempe | Public | Doctoral University | 80,065 | 1885 |
| Northern Arizona University | Flagstaff | Public | Doctoral University | 28,086 | 1899 |
| University of Arizona | Tucson | Public | Doctoral University | 49,403 | 1885 |
| Arizona Christian University | Glendale | Private (Not For Profit) | Baccalaureate College | 1,082 | 1960 |
| Benedictine University at Mesa | Mesa | Private (Not For Profit) | Master's University | 1887 | |
| Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University | Prescott | Private (Not For Profit) | Baccalaureate College | 3,162 | 1978 |
| Prescott College | Prescott | Private (Not For Profit) | Master's University | 969 | 1966 |
| Ottawa University | Surprise | Private (Not For Profit) | Baccalaureate College | 1,736 | 1865 |
| Park University | Gilbert | Private (Not For Profit) | Master's University | 350 | 1875 |
| A.T. Still University | Phoenix | Private (Not For Profit) | Special Focus: Medical | ? | 1892 |
| Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies | Phoenix | Private (Not For Profit) | Not classified | 2015 | |
| Fuller Theological Seminary | Phoenix | Private (Not For Profit) | Special Focus: Faith-based | ? | 1947 |
| Midwestern University | Glendale | Private (Not For Profit) | Special Focus: Medical | 3,782 | 1900 |
| Phoenix Seminary | Phoenix | Private (Not For Profit) | Special Focus: Faith-based | 321 | 1988 |
| Sonoran University of Health Sciences | Tempe | Private (Not For Profit) | Special Focus: Other Health | 591 | 1993 |
| The School of Architecture | Paradise Valley | Private (Not For Profit) | Special Focus: Other | 6 | 1932 |
| Arizona College of Nursing | Tempe | Private (For Profit) | Special Focus: Health Professions | 1,177 | 1885 |
| Brookline College | Phoenix | Private (For Profit) | Special Focus: Health Professions | 1,387 | 1972 |
| Bryan University | Tempe | Private (For Profit) | Baccalaureate College | 1,767 | 1940 |
| Carrington College | Phoenix | Private (For Profit) | Special Focus: Health Professions | 1,494 | 1967 |
| Chamberlain University | Phoenix | Private (For Profit) | Special Focus: Health Professions | 818 | 1889 |
| DeVry University | Phoenix | Private (For Profit) | Baccalaureate College | 73 | 1931 |
| Grand Canyon University | Phoenix | Private (For Profit) | Doctoral University | 101,816 | 1949 |
| Sessions College for Professional Design | Tempe | Private (For Profit) | Special Focus: Art & Design | 308 | 1997 |
| Universal Technical Institute | Avondale | Private (For Profit) | Special Focus: Technical | 1,972 | 1965 |
| University of Advancing Technology | Tempe | Private (For Profit) | Baccalaureate College | 860 | 1983 |
| University of Phoenix | Phoenix | Private (For Profit) | Doctoral University | 88,891 | 1976 |
| School | Location | Control | Carnegie Classification | Founded [2] | Closed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anthem Education Group | Glendale | Private (For Profit) | Doctoral University | 1970 | |
| Arizona Summit Law School | Phoenix | Private (For Profit) | Doctoral University | 2005 | 2018 |
| The Art Institute of Phoenix | Phoenix | Private (For Profit) | Masters University | 1969 | |
| The Art Institute of Tucson | Tucson | Private (For Profit) | Baccalaureate / Associates Colleges | 1996 | |
| Brown Mackie College | Phoenix | Private (For Profit) | Baccalaureate / Associates Colleges | 1892 | 2017 |
| Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Scottsdale | Scottsdale | Private (For Profit) | Special-focus Institution | 1986 | 2017 |
| CollegeAmerica | Phoenix | Private (For Profit) | Baccalaureate / Associates Colleges | 1964 | |
| Collins College | Phoenix | Private (For Profit) | Associate's College | 1978 | 2012 |
| Southwest University of Visual Arts | Tucson | Private (For Profit) | Baccalaureate / Associates Colleges | 1983 | 2020 |
Phoenix is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,662,607 residents as of 2024. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States and the most populous state capital in the country.
Maricopa County is a county in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census the population was 4,420,568, or about 62% of the state's total, making it the fourth-most populous county in the United States and the most populous county in Arizona, and making Arizona one of the nation's most centralized states. The county seat is Phoenix, the state capital and fifth-most populous city in the United States.
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, and is part of the Phoenix metropolitan area. Named Scottsdale in 1894 after its founder Winfield Scott, a retired U.S. Army chaplain, the city was incorporated in 1951 with a population of 2,000. At the 2020 census, the population was 241,361, which had grown from 217,385 in 2010. Its slogan is "The West's Most Western Town". Over the past two decades, it has been one of the fastest growing cities and housing markets in the United States.
Tempe is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2020 population of 180,587. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in the East Valley section of metropolitan Phoenix; it is bordered by Phoenix and Guadalupe on the west, Scottsdale and the Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community on the north, Chandler on the south, and Mesa on the east. Tempe is the location of the main campus of Arizona State University.
The Phoenix metropolitan area, also known as the Valley of the Sun, the Salt River Valley, metro Phoenix, or The Valley, is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the Southwestern United States, with its largest principal city being the city of Phoenix. It includes much of central Arizona. The United States Office of Management and Budget designates the area as the Phoenix–Mesa–Chandler Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), defining it as Maricopa and Pinal counties. It anchors the Arizona Sun Corridor megaregion along with the second-most populous metropolitan area in the state, the Tucson metropolitan area. The gross domestic product of the Phoenix metropolitan area was $362 billion in 2022, 14th highest amongst metro areas in the United States.
Arizona State Route 101 or Loop 101 is a semi-beltway looping around the Phoenix Metropolitan Area in central Arizona, United States. It connects several suburbs of Phoenix, including Tolleson, Glendale, Peoria, Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe, and Chandler. Construction began in the late-1980s and was completed in 2002.
The Diocese of Phoenix is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, in western and central Arizona in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the ecclesiastical province of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.
The Valley Metro Regional Public Transportation Authority, more popularly known as Valley Metro, is the unified public brand of the regional transit system for the Phoenix metropolitan area. Within the system, it is divided between Valley Metro Bus, which runs all bus operations, Valley Metro Rail, which is responsible for light rail and streetcar operations in the Valley. In 2023, the combined bus and rail system had a ridership of 36,374,000, or about 114,400 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2024.
The East Valley Tribune is a newspaper concentrated on cities within the East Valley region of metropolitan Phoenix, including Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert, and Queen Creek.
The Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD), also known as Maricopa Community Colleges, is a public community college district in Maricopa County, Arizona. Headquartered in Tempe, MCCCD is among the largest community college districts in the United States, serving more than 100,000 students each year in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
The Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC) comprises two distinct Native American tribes—the Pima and the Maricopa —many of whom were originally part of the Halchidhoma (Xalchidom) tribe. The community was permanently created by an Executive Order of US President Rutherford B. Hayes on June 14th, 1879. The community area includes 53,600 acres (217 km2), of which 19,000 remain a natural preserve. As of 2022, the total population is 7,386. The community is a federally recognized tribe located in Arizona.
The metropolitan area of Phoenix in the U.S. state of Arizona contains one of the nation's largest and fastest-growing freeway systems, with over 1,405 lane miles (2,261 km) as of 2005.
The Tohono Oʼodham Nation is the collective government body of the Tohono Oʼodham tribe in the United States. The Tohono Oʼodham Nation governs four separate sections of land with a combined area of 2.8 million acres (11,330 km2), approximately the size of Connecticut and the second-largest Indigenous land holding in the United States. These lands are in the Sonoran Desert of south central Arizona and border the Mexico–United States border for 74 miles (119 km). The Nation is organized into 11 local districts and has a tripartite system of government. Sells is the Nation's largest community and functions as its capital. The Nation has about 34,000 enrolled members, most of whom live off of the reservations.
Many arterial roads in the Phoenix metropolitan area have the same name in multiple cities or towns. Some roads change names or route numbers across town borders, resulting in occasional confusion. For example, the road known as Apache Boulevard in Tempe continues east as Main Street in neighboring Mesa and then as Apache Trail in Apache Junction. Although Broadway Road maintains the same name through Goodyear, Avondale, Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa, and Apache Junction, each town uses a different reference point for address numbers. Three arterial roads run continuously for over 40 miles. Four other arterial roads run continuously for over 30 miles.
Tohono O'odham Community College (TOCC) is a public tribal land-grant community college in Haivana Nakya, Arizona. As of fall 2023, TOCC's student body was 96 percent American Indian/Alaskan Native. Tohono O'odham Community College serves approximately 1174 students. As of 2012, the college's faculty and staff was 57 percent American Indian, half of whom were O'odham.
The East Valley Partnership is a regional coalition of community, business, educational and government leaders whose goal is to provide leadership and support in specific areas of focus, thereby improving business and quality of life in the region.
The Phoenix Metropolitan Area consists of a valley that has multiple city regions in it. The East Valley is a multi-city region within the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of Arizona. East Valley is a loosely defined region, with various definitions of what constitutes it.
The following is a timeline of the history of the area which today comprises the U.S. state of Arizona. Situated in the desert southwest, for millennia the area was home to a series of Pre-Columbian peoples. By 1 AD, the dominant groups in the area were the Hohokam, the Mogollon, and the Ancestral Puebloans. The Hohokam dominated the center of the area which is now Arizona, the Mogollon the southeast, and the Puebloans the north and northeast. As these cultures disappeared between 1000 and 1400 AD, other Indian groups settled in Arizona. These tribes included the Navajo, Apache, Southern Paiute, Hopi, Yavapai, Akimel O'odham, and the Tohono O'odham.
Edward Leighton Varney Jr. (1914–1998) was an American Modernist architect working in Phoenix, Arizona from 1937 until his retirement in 1985. He designed the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale, and Sun Devil Stadium at Arizona State University. In 1941, he began his career, which would extend to his retirement in 1985. His firm would continue designing buildings into the 1990s.
