The University of Alabama, Birmingham (UAB) is a public university in the University of Alabama system with 21,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The school is known for its biomedical research, with $780 million spent on research in 2024, including over $400 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ^{1 1}

In 2024 and 2025, the UAB was forced to scale back and eliminate its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs after the Alabama legislature passed a bill banning DEI at public institutions, a measure that was later reinforced by a second Trump administration “Dear Colleague” letter demanding that universities cancel their DEI programs as a condition of receiving federal funding. ^{1 2}

Founding

The University of Alabama, Birmingham originates from the establishment of the Medical College of Alabama in 1859. In 1936, the College was expanded as it was converted into the Birmingham Extension Center of the University of Alabama. In 1945, it was further expanded as it incorporated the University of Alabama’s Medical Center. In 1966, the various components were merged into the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and in 1969, the university was spun off into an independent institution under the University of Alabama system. ³

Overview

The University of Alabama, Birmingham hosts almost 21,000 undergraduate and graduate students. As of 2026, the school has 160,000 alumni and a student-to-faculty ratio of 18 students per faculty member. ^{4 5 6}

In 2026, U.S. News and World Report ranked UAB the 132nd-best university in the United States, and the 68th-best public school. That year, UAB had an admissions rate of 88 percent and a four-year graduation rate of 44 percent. ⁴

Like most public universities, UAB charges different tuition rates for in-state and out-of-state students. Students from Alabama pay $12,140 per semester, while students from outside of Alabama pay $29,480 per semester. ⁴

UAB is a major research institution, particularly concerning biomedical research. In 2024, UAB spent $780 million on research. ¹

UAB has a $12.1 billion economic impact annually on the State of Alabama. ⁵

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

In April 2024, the Alabama legislature passed the Alabama Act, which prohibits diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) activity by state agencies, public universities, and public boards of education. ⁷ The passage of the bill was preceded by protests on the University of Alabama, Birmingham campus and other University of Alabama schools. ⁸

In July 2024, UAB announced changes to its administration to comply with the Alabama Act, including the closure of its Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, to be replaced by a new Office of Access and Engagement. ² The Alabama chapter of the ACLU issued a statement urging UAB to reverse the closure of the DEI office. ⁹ In August, the Black Student Union and the Queer Student Alliance were shut down at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. ¹⁰

In January 2025, a group of UAB and University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa students and professors, along with the NAACP’s Alabama chapter, filed a lawsuit against the State of Alabama to challenge the Alabama Act. The lawsuit sought to overturn the law and restore funding to cut DEI programs. ¹¹

In February 2025, the second Trump administration’s U.S. Department of Education (ED) issued a “Dear Colleague” letter to 60 universities stating that the federal government would stop providing funds to schools that violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by engaging in racial discrimination. The letter was taken as a directive from the Trump administration to left-leaning universities to dismantle or at least limit their DEI programs. ¹² In 2024, UAB received over $400 million from the National Institutes of Health, a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ¹

In March, ED’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced an investigation into UAB for possible violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, including “impermissible race-based scholarships” and “race-based segregation.” ¹³

Later in March, over 300 students, professors, and UAB medical patients protested the Trump administration’s potential cuts to federal research funds for UAB. ¹⁴

In June, UAB posted a “Framework for Research Submissions” that states that research proposals must comply with state law, cannot use DEI criteria, and “cannot… discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, ethnicity or national origin.” ¹⁵

Also in June, the UAB canceled the Herschell Lee Hamilton, M.D., Endowed Scholarship in Medicine, a scholarship created in 2013 for Black medical students. ¹⁶ The decision was made by the UAB administration after a lawsuit was filed in April against the school claiming that the scholarship engaged in racial discrimination and therefore violated the Alabama Act. ¹⁷

Israel-Palestinian Protests

Following the October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks on Israel perpetrated by Hamas, protests erupted on the University of Alabama, Birmingham campus, primarily in support of Palestinians and led by several Palestinian students and the UAB chapter of the Muslim Students Association (MSA). ¹⁸ Protests carried on through October and into November, including a National Palestine Day Event hosted by the Middle Eastern Student Association. ^{19 20}

From January through March 2025, three pro-Palestinian protests were held on the UAB campus, with hosts including the Leftist Collective and Bama Students for Palestine. These groups demanded that the university divest from firms that operate in Israel and rename Hewson Hall, which is named after Marillyn Hewson, the former CEO of Lockheed Martin, a defense contracting firm that has supplied Israel with weapons. ²¹

In January 2026, the UAB chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine launched a new round of protests with updated demands, including joining the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, refusing funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, and removing weapons manufacturers from campus recruitment events. ²²

Other Controversies

In 2025, the University of Alabama, Birmingham was reprimanded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and PETA after two piglets died in a UAB research lab due to negligence. ²³

In 2024, the UAB was sued by the family of Charles Singleton, an inmate who died in 2021 before being transferred to the UAB medical school, where his organs were allegedly illegally harvested without permission from the family. In January 2026, the lawsuit was dismissed. ²⁴

From 2023 to 2025, the UAB received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to research “why pumping biological women with testosterone makes their vaginal and cervical tissue much more susceptible to severe tearing and HIV infection.” ²⁵

In 2019, a UAB assistant biology professor attracted controversy for making a blog post and a series of Tweets that were interpreted as defending white nationalism, including “Ethnonationalism, including when it is practiced by various kinds of white people and is not synonymous with hatred or terror.” In 2018, UAB attracted similar controversy when a biology teaching assistant was accused of serving as pledge coordinator for Identity Europa, a white nationalist group. ²⁶

1. “2024 Financial Report.” UAB. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.uab.edu/financialaffairs/images/documents/reporting/2024_financial_report.pdf.
2. “UAB makes adjustments under new laws, closes DEI Office.” UAB. July 23, 2024. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.uab.edu/news/campus-community/uab-makes-adjustments-under-new-laws-closes-dei-office.
3. “A Chronological History of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and its Predecessor Institutions and Organizations, 1831-.” UAB. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://library.uab.edu/locations/archives/uab-history.
4. “University of Alabama at Birmingham.” U.S. News and World Report. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/university-of-alabama-at-birmingham-1052.
5. “About.” University of Alabama, Birmingham. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.uab.edu/home/about.
6. “Institutional Effectiveness and Analysis.” UAB. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.uab.edu/institutionaleffectiveness/data-library/student-data/student-demographics.
7. Kirmani, Samia; Thomas, Michael; Harris, Daniel. “New Alabama Law Limits Public Employers’ DEI Efforts.” Jackson Lewis. April 3, 2024. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.jacksonlewis.com/insights/new-alabama-law-limits-public-employers-dei-efforts.
8. Quinn, Ryan. “As Alabama Republicans Target DEI, They Propose ‘Gag Order’ on Professors.” Inside Higher Ed. March 1, 2024. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2024/03/01/ala-gop-targets-dei-it-proposes-professor-gag-order.
9. “University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham Should Reconsider Decision to Close DEI Office.” ACLU Alabama. July 25, 2024. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.aclualabama.org/news/university-alabama-and-university-alabama-birmingham-should-reconsider-decision-close-dei/.
10. “Alabama anti-DEI law shuts Black Student Union office, queer resource center at flagship university.” KESQ. August 30, 2024. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://kesq.com/news/2024/08/30/alabama-anti-dei-law-shuts-black-student-union-office-queer-resource-center-at-flagship-university/.
11. Rocha, Alander. “UAB students, UA professors sue Alabama over state law banning DEI programs.” Alabama Reflector. January 14, 2025. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://alabamareflector.com/2025/01/14/uab-students-ua-professors-sue-alabama-over-state-law-banning-dei-programs/.
12. “Dear Colleague:” Department of Education. February 14, 2025. Accessed March 16, 2026. https://www.ed.gov/media/document/dear-colleague-letter-sffa-v-harvard-109506.pdf.
13. Barrett, Anna. “UAB, not University of Alabama, target of Education Department DEI investigation.” Al.com. March 17, 2025. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.al.com/news/2025/03/uab-not-university-of-alabama-target-of-education-department-dei-investigation.html.
14. Griesbach, Rebecca. “‘Everyone loses’: 300 patients, researchers, students rally in Birmingham to protest Trump spending cuts.” All Alabama. March 8, 2025. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.al.com/educationlab/2025/03/everyone-loses-300-patients-researchers-students-rally-in-birmingham-to-protest-trump-spending-cuts.html.
15. “Framework for Research Submissions.” UAB. June 23, 2025. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.uab.edu/compliance/areas-of-focus/emerging-laws-regulations-policies/framework-for-research-submissions.
16. “Fearing Reprisals, UAB Cancels Scholarship for Black Medical Students.” Equal Justice Initiative. June 25, 2025. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://eji.org/news/fearing-reprisals-uab-cancels-scholarships-for-black-medical-students/.
17. Yuhas, Ashleigh. “University of Alabama faces a lawsuit after a scholarship for Black students is challenged as discriminatory.” WDHN. April 28, 2025. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.wdhn.com/news/university-of-alabama-faces-a-lawsuit-over-a-scholarship-for-black-students-is-challenged-as-discriminatory/.
18. Bruce, Lewis. “Muslim Students Association organizes protest in support of Palestine.” We Are Blazer Media. October 27, 2023. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://uabblazermedia.com/2023/10/muslim-students-association-organizes-protest-in-support-of-palestine/.
19. Lewallen, Ayron. “UAB students demand permanent cease-fire in Palestine as temporary one ends.” WVTM 13. November 29, 2023. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.wvtm13.com/article/uab-students-temporary-cease-fire-palestine-gaza-hamas/45883528.
20. “UAB Campus Calendar.” UAB. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://calendar.uab.edu/event/national_palestine_day_event_7724?utm_source=chatgpt.com.
21. Krezminski, Max; Hagan, Victor. “Students hold third pro-Palestine protest of school year.” The Crimson White. March 8, 2025. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://thecrimsonwhite.com/120035/news/students-hold-third-pro-palestine-protest-of-school-year/.
22. Fogel, Apryl Marie. “Pro-Palestine student org at University of Alabama unleashes anti-Israel BDS demands on administration.” 1819 News. January 16, 2026. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://1819news.com/news/item/pro-palestine-student-org-at-university-of-alabama-unleashes-anti-israel-bds-demands-on-administration.
23. Conlon, Riley. “UAB under fire from PETA as federal inspectors detail piglet deaths, lab violations.” August 18, 2025. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.wvtm13.com/article/uab-piglet-death-peta-lab-inspection-usda/65812745.
24. Pollock, Taylor. “Supreme Court of Alabama dismisses family’s claims that UAB stole organs of inmate.” WBRC. January 30, 2026. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://www.wbrc.com/2026/01/30/supreme-court-alabama-dismisses-familys-claims-that-uab-stole-organs-inmate/.
25. Thayer, Parker. “More Transgender-Specific Grants to Children’s Hospitals and Universities.” Capital Research Center. February 19, 2025. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://capitalresearch.org/article/more-transgender-specific-grants-to-childrens-hospitals-and-universities/.
26. Sides, Whitney. “UAB Biology professor defends his ‘four political sh*tpost tweets’.” Blazer Media. August 8, 2019. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://uabblazermedia.com/2019/08/uab-biology-professor-defends-his-four-political-shtpost-tweets/.