The University of Delaware has a great tradition of excellence, from our roots extending back to a small private academy started in 1743, to the research-intensive, technologically advanced institution of today.
Our alumni tell our story of achievement, from our first class, which included three signers of the Declaration of Independence and one signer of the U.S. Constitution, to the more than 154,000 living Blue Hens who are making vital contributions to the world. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his wife, Jill, are both UD alumni.
The University received its charter from the State of Delaware in 1833 and was designated one of the nation’s historic Land Grant colleges in 1867. Today, UD is a Land Grant, Sea Grant and Space Grant institution. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching classifies UD as a research university with very high research activity—a designation accorded less than 3 percent of U.S. colleges and universities. UD ranks among the nation’s top 100 universities in federal R&D support for science and engineering.
A state-assisted, privately governed institution, UD offers a broad range of degree programs: 3 associate programs, 147 bachelor’s programs, 119 master’s programs, 54 doctoral programs, and 15 dual graduate programs through our seven colleges and in collaboration with more than 70 research centers. Our student body encompasses more than 17,000 undergraduates, more than 3,600 graduate students and nearly 800 students in professional and continuing studies from across the country and around the globe.
Our distinguished faculty includes internationally known authors, scientists and artists, among them a Nobel laureate, Guggenheim and Fulbright fellows, and members of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
State-of-the-art facilities support UD’s academic and public service activities. Our 146-foot coastal research vessel, Hugh R. Sharp—the most advanced in the U.S.—helps scientists across the region explore the sea. World-class figure skaters train at our High Performance Figure Skating Center. Partnerships with Nemours/A. I. du Pont Hospital for Children, Christiana Care and Thomas Jefferson University; the U.S. Army; Winterthur; Longwood Gardens and Hagley Museum offer unparalleled experiences in health sciences, defense research, art conservation, horticulture and history. The University is now transforming a 272-acre parcel, the site of a former auto assembly plant, into the Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus.
Distinguished speaker series, symposia, 21 intercollegiate athletics programs and numerous intramural and club sports, more than 300 student organizations, concerts, exhibits and other arts and cultural activities enrich campus life.
Thomas Jefferson once described Delaware as a “jewel” among states due to its strategic location on the East Coast, halfway between Washington, D.C., and New York City. Today, however, the location of Delaware’s flagship university increasingly is invoked as “halfway between Los Angeles and London.”
In addition to our Georgian-inspired main campus in Newark, Del., UD has locations across the state–in Wilmington, Dover, Georgetown and Lewes. A thriving study-abroad program and expanding international partnerships further enhance our students’ education as global citizens.
One of the oldest universities in the U.S., the University of Delaware traces its roots to 1743 when a petition by the Presbytery of Lewes, Del., expressing the need for an educated clergy, led the Rev. Dr. Francis Alison to open a school in New London, Pa.
On Nov. 24, 1743, Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette carried this notice:
We are informed that there is a Free-School opened at the House of Mr. Alison in Chester County, for the Promotion of Learning, where all Persons may be instructed in the Languages and some other Parts of Polite Literature, without any Expences for their Education.
Alison’s first class was “possibly the most distinguished in terms of the later achievements of its members, taken as a whole, of any class in any school in America,” wrote historian John Munroe in The University of Delaware: A History.
The students would go on to become statesmen, doctors, merchants and scholars. Of special note, Thomas McKean, George Read and James Smith would sign the Declaration of Independence; Read also would sign the U.S. Constitution.
By 1765, Alison’s school had relocated to Newark, Delaware, where it received a charter as the Academy of Newark from Thomas and Richard Penn in 1769.
NewArk College opened as a degree-granting institution in 1834 and was renamed Delaware College in 1843. A Women’s College opened in 1914 with 58 students, and in 1921, the two coordinate colleges became the University of Delaware.
Since 1950, UD has quadrupled its enrollment and greatly expanded its faculty and academics, its physical plant, and its influence in the world. In fact, UD invented study abroad, with the first group traveling to Paris in 1923. Today, UD offers programs on all seven continents, and nearly 40 percent of our students study overseas. UD has received the Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education from the Institute for International Education.
In 2009, the University purchased a 272-acre parcel of land adjacent to campus that previously had been an auto assembly plant. The site will be the future home of a science and technology campus that will allow for expansion of UD’s educational and research opportunities and that will offer UD a wealth of options as it moves forward on its Path to Prominence.