United Methodist University

United Methodist University (UMU) is a private institution of higher learning located in Monrovia in the West African nation of Liberia.

The United Methodist University in Liberia began to explore starting a university in the 1970s which led to adding a junior college business program at the College of West Africa in 1980. The church then studied expanding the school into a full university with an exploratory committee formed in 1986. The church planned to move forward in 1990, but the First Liberian Civil War delayed the creation of the school, which the goal was re-affirmed in 1997. On 9 October 1998, the Liberian Legislature chartered United Methodist University, with the school, then opening in January 2000 under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Emmanuel F. Bailey.

In April 2011, the school and Starz Institute of Technology began a partnership in which Starz would operate the university's information technology program. The next March, UMU discontinued the program after the country's National Commission on Higher Education informed UMU it would have to end the partnership due to Starz not being an authorized degree granting school. Throughout its two decades, UMU has weathered political and economic turbulence while nurturing generations of Liberian scholars. Today, standing as the largest private university in the country, it holds a beacon of hope, preparing its students not only for careers but also for the vital task of rebuilding and leading Liberia into a brighter future.