 The first institute of higher education was established in Tulsa when Kendall College , a Presbyterian school , moved from Muskogee to Tulsa in 1907 . In 1920 , the school merged with a proposed McFarlin College to become the University of Tulsa ( abbreviated as TU ) . The McFarlin library of TU was named for the principal donor of the proposed college , oilman Robert M. McFarlin . 
