Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIU) first operated as a two-year normal school, but in 1904 became a four-year, degree-granting institution. In 1943, SIU was transformed from a teacher-training institution into a university, thus giving official recognition to the area's demand for diversified training and service. Graduate work was instituted in 1943, with the first doctoral degrees granted in 1959. There has been diversification and expansion of graduate programs across the University through the College of Agricultural, Life, and Physical Sciences, the College of Arts and Media, the College of Business and Analytics, the College of Engineering, Computing, Technology, and Mathematics, the College of Health and Human Sciences, the College of Liberal Arts, the Graduate School, the School of Education, the School of Law, and the School of Medicine. Combined, these colleges presently offer over 110 graduate degree programs.

In keeping with the state's master plan, and with a commitment to enhance its Carnegie Doctoral/Research-Extensive University status, the University's objective is to provide a comprehensive educational program meeting as many individual student needs as possible. While providing excellent instruction in a broad range of traditional programs, it also helps individual students design special programs when their interests are directed toward more individualized curricula. The University comprises a faculty and the facilities to offer general and professional training ranging from two-year associate degrees to doctoral programs, as well as certificate and non-degree programs meeting the needs of persons not interested in degree education.

The Carbondale campus, comprising more than 3,290 acres, has developed a 981-acre portion with woods and a lake as a site for its academic buildings and residence halls. The buildings are located in wooded tracts along two circular shaped campus drives, named for Lincoln and Douglas.

Carbondale is approximately 100 miles southeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Immediately south of Carbondale begins some of the most rugged and picturesque terrain in Illinois. Sixty miles to the south is the historic confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, the two forming the border of the southern tip of Little Egypt, the fourteen southernmost counties in Illinois. Within ten miles of the campus are located two state parks and four recreational lakes. Much of the area is a part of the 263,000 acre Shawnee National Forest.