Kansas State University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning consisting of two campuses. The main campus is a land-grant institution located in Manhattan, Kan., U.S., offering a full range of undergraduate and graduate degree programs. It comprises the Division of Biology, the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications, colleges of Agriculture, Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Human Ecology, Technology, and Veterinary Medicine. Kansas State University-Salina is a four-year engineering college. Research facilities include Konza Prairie, an Agricultural Experiment Station, the Wheat Genetics Resource Center, the Center for Basic Cancer Research, and a Trigma Mark II nuclear reactor. Total enrollment is approximately 21,000.
Founded in 1863, Kansas State was one of the first land-grant universities established under the Morrill Act of 1862. It initially occupied the vacant campus of the Bluemont Central College, moving to its current site in 1875. The university, originally named Kansas State Agricultural College, was coeducational from the outset. The Salina campus was created in 1991 after the merger of the Kansas College of Technology with Kansas State.