Enhancing Academic Excellence

At the University of Illinois, we have achieved the goals of our founders by providing an outstanding and affordable education to the students of our state. Many of our academic programs are consistently ranked among the top ten in the nation. Several of our departments are, year after year, ranked in the top five. We’ve earned a national reputation for attracting the best faculty and the brightest students, a combination that’s at the heart of the world-changing research, teaching, and community engagement that defines Illinois.

Our outstanding faculty members are brilliant men and women whose transformative work has been rewarded at the highest levels. They are winners of the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer, the Guggenheim Award and the National Medal in both science and technology. As recipients of the National Book Award, MacArthur “genius awards,” the Crafoord Prize, and hundreds of other awards for excellence in teaching and research, our faculty have brought prestige and national recognition to our university.

The best students and scholars in the state and nation come to Illinois to work alongside our accomplished faculty, furthering the academic excellence found throughout our campus. Yet, in today’s higher education environment, competition for the best and brightest professors is fierce.

Funds raised through the Brilliant Futures Campaign will help us 

• retain our outstanding professors and attract even more of the nation’s best educators and researchers
• increase the diversity of our faculty 
• expose students to a variety of viewpoints and cultures enabling them to understand and embrace different perspectives
• create more endowed chairs, professorships, and graduate fellowships
• create more research funds, scholarships, and professional awards across campus
• expand our Honors Program and merit scholarships
• strengthen our professional master’s programs
• offer more opportunities to students who want to pursue advanced degrees in key, growing professions.