The University of Northern Iowa, in Cedar Falls, Iowa, was founded in 1868. It has colleges of Business Administration, Education, Humanities and Fine Arts, Natural Sciences, and Social and Behavioral Sciences, and a graduate school. The Fall 2001 enrollment was 12,474 undergraduates and 1,596 graduate students. Almost 95 percent of its students are from the State of Iowa, in the United States.

The school's mascot is the Panther. They participate in the NCAA's Division I (I-AA for football) in the Gateway Football Conference and in the Missouri Valley Conference. Its best-known athletic alumnus is two-time NFL MVP Kurt Warner.