University of Portland

The first institution located on Waud's Bluff was Portland University, which was established by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1891. Amid financial setbacks following the Panic of 1893, Portland University vacated the Bluff Campus to hold classes from 1896 to 1897 in East Portland, where it was joined temporarily by the recently insolvent College of Puget Sound.

According to University of Portland tradition, Archbishop Alexander Christie, the head of the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon, saw a large building on the bluff from aboard a ship on the nearby Willamette River. He learned that it was called West Hall and had been unoccupied for several years since the closure of Portland University.

The Archdiocese purchased West Hall (renamed Waldschmidt Hall in 1992) and the surrounding campus with financial assistance from the Congregation of Holy Cross, and named the new institution Columbia University after the nearby Columbia River. The university opened its doors to 52 young men on September 5, 1901, with eight Catholic priests from the local archdiocese serving as professors. At the request of the archbishop, the Congregation of the Holy Cross assumed ownership of the university in 1902.

After two decades, Columbia University achieved junior college status. In 1925, the university's College of Arts and Sciences was founded, and in 1929, a class of seven men were awarded the university's first bachelor's degrees. In 1935, the school took on its present name, the University of Portland. The 1930s also saw the St. Vincent Hospital school incorporated to the university as the School of Nursing & Health Innovations, and the creation of the School of Business.

In 1948 the school of Engineering was founded, followed by the Graduate School in 1950 and the School of Education in 1962. University of Portland admitted women to all courses of study in 1951. Prior to this transition, Marylhurst University had been the only Catholic institution of higher learning to serve the educational needs of Oregon women. The building housing the library was completed in 1957. In 1967 ownership of the school was transferred from the Congregation of Holy Cross to a board of Regents. Multnomah College became part of the University of Portland (UP) in 1969.

The School of Business is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees. In 2025, the name changed from "Pamplin School of Business" to "University of Portland School of Business." Its undergraduate program ranked as among the "Best Undergraduate Business Programs" by U.S. News and its Part-Time MBA is placed highly in U.S. News' Best Grad School rankings.

The undergraduate program offers a BA in economics and a BBA in five different areas: Accounting, Finance, Economics, Marketing and Sustainability, and Operations and Technology Management.

At the graduate level, the School of Business offers a MS in finance, a MS in Operations & Technology Management, an MBA, an MBA in Nonprofit Administration, a technology entrepreneurship certificate, and a post-MBA certificate. The graduate degrees are accountable to both the Dean of the School of Business and the Dean of the Graduate School. The MBA program is noted for its diversity within the context of Oregon. Among the five AACSB MBA programs in Oregon, UP's School of Business has the highest percentage of women, minorities, and international students.