Visit Experience Michigan by touring campus and meeting the people who make up our dynamic community. We, along with our service providers and other third parties use cookies and other analytics, advertising, and tracking technologies on this site. Your information, including personal information and interactions with this site, may be monitored, recorded, or collected through these tools and further used or disclosed by us, our service providers and authorized third parties. To opt-out click on “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” in the website footer, or to learn more ... University of Michigan , state university of Michigan , located in Ann Arbor. It originated as a preparatory school in Detroit in 1817 and moved to its present site in 1837. It began to offer postsecondary instruction in 1841 and developed into one of the leading research universities of the world.