Lakehead University is a public research university in Thunder Bay, and Orillia, Ontario, Canada. Lakehead, shortened to 'Lakehead U', or 'LU', is non-denominational and provincially-supported. It has undergraduate and graduate programs and a medical school. The school has more than 45,000 alumni in 67 different countries. The main campus in Thunder Bay has more than 7,300 students. As of September 2010, a new permanent extension campus in Orillia, located about 150 km north of Toronto, has more than 900 students. Lakehead Technical Institute was established in 1946 in response to a brief outlining the need for an institution of higher education in northwestern Ontario. Lakehead University evolved from Lakehead Technical Institute (founded 1946) and Lakehead College of Arts, Science, and Technology (founded 1957). Lakehead Technical Institute was established on June 4, 1946, by an Order-in-Council of the Province of Ontario. Classes commenced in January 1948, in temporary rented quarters in downtown Port Arthur. In September of that same year, the first university courses were added to the curriculum.