Hamburger University is a 130,000-square-foot (12,000Â m2) training facility of McDonald's, located in Oak Brook, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago. This corporate university was designed to instruct personnel employed by McDonald's in the various aspects of restaurant management. More than 80,000 restaurant managers, mid-managers and owner/operators have graduated from this facility.
Campus
Today, Hamburger University is situated on an 80 acres (32Â ha) campus with 19 full-time resident instructors. The facility comprises 13 teaching rooms, a 300-seat auditorium, 12 interactive education team rooms, and 3 kitchen labs. Hamburger University interpreters can provide simultaneous interpretation, and the faculty has the ability to teach in 28 different languages. Restaurant employees receive approximately 32 hours of training in their first month with McDonald's and more than 5,000 students attend Hamburger University each year.
Founder Ray Kroc oversaw lessons at its beginning. Although Kroc died in 1984, he appears in videotaped lectures that are still used at Hamburger University.
Popular culture
Hamburger University was satirized in the 1986 comedy, Hamburger... The Motion Picture. It was also spoofed by McDonald's itself in a commercial with Ronald McDonald where a bunch of animatronic hamburgers are shown graduating from school.