The University of North Carolina at Charlotte is a public university located in Charlotte, North Carolina. It opened September 23, 1946, as the Charlotte Center of the University of North Carolina, one of fourteen evening college centers established by the state for World War II veterans. Classes were held at Central High School.

In 1949, when the state closed the centers, the Charlotte Center was taken over by the city school district and became Charlotte College, a two-year institution. Funded first by student tuition payments, then by local property taxes, it became state-supported in 1958 upon joining the newly formed North Carolina community college system. In 1961 it moved to its present campus ten miles northeast of downtown Charlotte, and in 1963 became a four-year college. It adopted its current name July 1, 1965, upon becoming part of the Consolidated University of North Carolina, since 1972 called the University of North Carolina System.

As of 2004 UNCC has an enrollment of 19,800 students with approximately 4,000 graduate students. It offers over eighty-two undergraduate, fifty-seven master's, and ten doctoral programs.

James H. Woodward has served as the University's chancellor since he was appointed to succeed E.K. Fretwell in 1989. He has announced his retirement, effective in the summer of 2005. A search for the next chancellor is underway.

For athletics purposes, the school prefers to be called Charlotte. The school, a member of the NCAA's Division I (with no football program), is currently a member of Conference USA, but will leave for the Atlantic Ten Conference in 2005. Charlotte's team nickname is 49ers.