Established in 1864 as Maine's first public institution of higher education and located at the foothills of the mountains of western Maine, the University of Maine at Farmington is Maine's selective public liberal arts college, offering quality programs in teacher education, human services, and arts and sciences. With enrollment limited to just 2,000 students, the University of Maine at Farmington is the same size as many of New England's most selective private colleges and offers many of the same advantages at an affordable price.

And the University's academic reputation is growing. In the 2005 America's Best Colleges' issue and guidebook, U.S. News & World Report rated the University of Maine at Farmington as one of the Top Public Comprehensive Colleges in the North for the ninth consecutive year.

Following these traditions, the University of Maine at Farmington is a founding member of COPLAC, the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges, an exclusive national group of seventeen public colleges and universities dedicated to the liberal arts tradition, the creation of teaching and learning communities, and the expansion of access to an undergraduate liberal arts education.