The University of Montevallo is a four-year public university located in Montevallo, Alabama, USA. Founded in 1896, it is Alabama's only public liberal arts college and a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. Programs are offered through the Michael E. Stephens College of Business, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education, College of Fine Arts, and graduate studies in Business, Education, English and Speech-Language Pathology. Its current president, John W. Stewart III, was formerly Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida. Dr. Stewart succeeded Philip C. Williams, who left after four years of service to the university.

The University of Montevallo continues to ascend the rankings of “America’s Best Colleges,” published by U.S. News & World Report. According to rankings for the 2012 edition, released September 13, UM is once again ranked as the No. 1 public master’s-level university in Alabama, a distinction it has held each year since 2008. For 2012, Montevallo is listed as the 11th best public university in the South in its division, climbing three positions from last year’s rank of 14th.

Overall in the South, UM ranked 36th, up four positions from 40th last year and 23 positions from its 2007 ranking of 59th. Schools in 12 states make up the South geographic region.

Montevallo earned high marks for academic reputation, freshman retention rate, graduation rate, entering freshmen test scores and class rank, small class sizes and low student-faculty ratio.