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The following is a List of defunct universities and colleges in Illinois. This list includes accredited, degree-granting institutions and bona fide institutions of higher learning that operated before accreditation existed. All had at least one location within the state of Illinois, and all have since discontinued operations or their operations were taken over by another similar institution of higher learning.
Northwestern University (NU) is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest chartered university in Illinois. The university has its main campus along the shores of Lake Michigan in the Chicago metropolitan area.
DePaul University is a private Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul. In 1998, it became the largest Catholic university in terms of enrollment in North America. Following in the footsteps of its founders, DePaul places special emphasis on recruiting first-generation students and others from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Trinity International University (TIU) is an evangelical Christian university headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois. It comprises Trinity College, Trinity Graduate School, a theological seminary, a law school, and a camp called Timber-lee. The university also maintains campuses in North Lauderdale, Florida & Miami, Florida; the camp is located in East Troy, Wisconsin. TIU is the only university affiliated with Evangelical Free Church of America in the United States and enrolls about 2,700 students. On February 17, 2023, TIU announced it was moving the undergraduate program to online modalities only and closed the residential campus at the end of the Spring 2023 semester.
The International Academy of Design and Technology (IADT) was a private for-profit media arts college in the United States with over ten branches. It was owned by Career Education Corporation. The institution was briefly merged with Sanford-Brown in 2014 before being closed in 2015.
Midwestern University (MWU) is a private medical and professional school with campuses in Downers Grove, Illinois and Glendale, Arizona. As of the 2020–21 academic year, a total of 2,987 students were enrolled at the Downers Grove campus and 3,902 were enrolled at the Glendale campus.
Robert Morris University Illinois, formerly Robert Morris College, was a private university with its main campus in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded in 1965 but its oldest ancestor was the Moser School founded in 1913. It changed its name to Robert Morris University Illinois in 2009. In 2020, it merged into Roosevelt University, which formed under it a new Robert Morris Experiential College as one of several colleges at Roosevelt. Robert Morris offered associate and bachelor's degrees and was regionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
The Art Institutes (AI) were a private for-profit system of art schools in the United States.
Chicago State University (CSU) is a predominantly black (PBI) public university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1867 as the Cook County Normal School, it was an innovative teachers college. Eventually the Chicago Public Schools assumed control of the school from the county and it became Chicago Teachers College (CTC). Northeastern Illinois University began as a branch campus of CTC in 1949. In 1951, the State of Illinois began funding the college, and assumed control in 1965, transforming it into a comprehensive state college. In 1967, it became Chicago State University. CSU is a member of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
Roosevelt University is a private university with campuses in Chicago and Schaumburg, Illinois. Founded in 1945, the university was named in honor of United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The university enrolls around 4,000 students between its undergraduate and graduate programs. Roosevelt is home to the Chicago College of Performing Arts.
National Louis University (NLU) is a private nonprofit university with its main campus in Chicago, Illinois. NLU enrolls undergraduate and graduate students in more than 60 programs across its four colleges. It has locations throughout the Chicago metropolitan area as well as a regional campus in Tampa, Florida, where it serves students from 13 counties in that state’s central region.
Illinois Institute of Art – Chicago was a for-profit art and culinary school in Chicago, Illinois. It briefly operated as a non-profit institution before it closed in 2018. The school was one of a number of Art Institutes, a franchise of for-profit art colleges with many branches in North America, owned and operated by Education Management Corporation. EDMC owned the college from 1975 until 2017, when, facing significant financial problems and declining enrollment, the company sold the Illinois Institute of Art – Chicago, along with 30 other Art Institute schools, to Dream Center Education, a Los Angeles–based Pentecostal organization.
Barat College of the Sacred Heart was a small Catholic college located in Lake Forest, Illinois, 30 miles (48 km) north of Chicago. The college was named after Madeleine Sophie Barat, founder of the Society of the Sacred Heart.
The American Conservatory of Music (ACM) was a major American school of music founded in Chicago in 1886 by John James Hattstaedt (1851–1931). The conservatory was incorporated as an Illinois non-profit corporation. It developed the Conservatory Symphony Orchestra and had numerous student recitals. The oldest private degree-granting music school in the Midwestern United States, it was located in Chicago until 1991.
The National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) is an association of post-secondary music schools in the United States and the principal U.S. accreditor for higher education in music. It was founded on October 20, 1924, and is based in Reston, Virginia. The association's accreditation of schools of music began in 1939.
Argosy University was a system of for-profit colleges owned by Dream Center Education Holdings (DCEH), LLC and Education Management Corporation.
Westwood College was a private for-profit college owned by Alta Colleges Inc. with 15 campus locations in five states and online learning options. Westwood was nationally accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS). Since its inception in 1986, Westwood graduated more than 37,000 students. The college closed in March 2016.
The Chicago School is a private university with its main campus in Chicago, Illinois. Established in 1979, The Chicago School was primarily focused on the professional application of psychology. It currently has about 6,000 students across all campuses and online. The university offers more than 30 academic programs in professional fields such as psychology, business, health care, health services, education, counseling, and nursing.
The history of Northwestern University can be traced back to a May 31, 1850, meeting of nine prominent Chicago businessmen who shared a desire to establish a university to serve the former Northwest Territory. On January 28, 1851, the Illinois General Assembly granted a charter to the Trustees of the North-Western University making it the first recognized university in Illinois. While the original founders were devout Methodists and affiliated the university with Methodist Episcopal Church, they were committed to non-sectarian admissions.