University of Delaware

The University of Delaware (commonly abbreviated UD or UDel) is a state-assisted, privately governed research university located in Newark, Delaware. It is a privately governed, state-assisted land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. With 24,221 students as of fall 2023, UD is the largest university in Delaware by enrollment. Founded in 1743 and chartered by the state in 1833, the University of Delaware today is a land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant university. One of the oldest institutions of higher learning in the country, the university has grown from a small colonial-era academy into a major research institution whose alumni include a sitting U.S. president, multiple senators, and prominent figures in business, science, and the arts. UD offers 4 associate programs, 163 bachelor's programs, 136 master's programs, and 64 doctoral programs across its ten colleges and schools, with its main campus in Newark and satellite campuses in Dover, Wilmington, Lewes, and Georgetown.

History and Founding

The University of Delaware traces its origins to 1743, when Presbyterian minister Francis Alison opened a "Free School" in his home in New London, Pennsylvania. During its early years, the school was run under the auspices of the Philadelphia Synod of the Presbyterian Church. The school changed its name and location several times, moving to Newark by 1765 and receiving a charter from the colonial Penn government as the Academy of Newark in 1769.

While legislative support for an institution of higher learning within the State does not appear until 1818, the forerunner of the University of Delaware, the Academy of Newark, had been incorporated by a Penn charter in 1769. The free school in its early years suffered through periodic closings due to enrollment fluctuations and financial reverses. However, the board of trustees of the Academy remained committed to having an institution for higher learning within the boundaries of the State.

The state of Delaware chartered a college to operate in conjunction with the academy in 1833. New Ark College, a degree-granting institution, opened the next year. The name was changed to Delaware College in 1843. Because of financial problems and the looming American Civil War, the college was forced to close in 1859. With funds provided by the Morrill Act of 1862, the college reopened in 1870.

Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Land Grant Act on July 2, 1862, which sold 30,000 acres of Federal land per state to create a system of land grant colleges to teach agriculture and the mechanical arts (engineering) to each state's citizens. Delaware College closed during the Civil War but reopened in 1870 as one of just 36 land grant colleges in the United States.

A women's college opened in 1914 with 58 students, and in 1921, the two colleges joined to become the University of Delaware. It officially became a coeducational institution in 1945 when it merged with the Women's College of Delaware. Following World War II, enrollment grew rapidly. After World War II, UD enrollment skyrocketed, thanks to the G.I. Bill. In the late 1940s, almost two-thirds of the students were veterans.

Desegregation

The University of Delaware holds a notable, if complicated, place in the history of American civil rights. The University of Delaware was desegregated in 1950 following the case Parker v. University of Delaware, which was brought before the Delaware Court of Chancery in June of that year. Prior to this case, the university had remained exclusively white under the "separate but equal" doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision in 1896.

In 1950, Louis Redding, the first African American admitted to the Delaware bar, represented ten Black students who had been denied admission to the University due to their race. In Parker v. University of Delaware, Redding argued that, in denying admission to the students, the university had acted unconstitutionally, violating the "separate but equal" clause of Plessy v. Ferguson. At the time of the lawsuit, the students were attending Delaware State College (now Delaware State University), a historically Black institution.

Judge Seitz's first groundbreaking ruling came in 1950, when he ordered the University of Delaware to admit African American students for the first time. Although segregated schools were mandated by the state constitution, and an earlier U.S. Supreme Court ruling had allowed "separate but equal" segregated schools, Judge Seitz determined that the separate institutions of higher education in Delaware were far from equal. He compared UD to what was then Delaware State College, the institution open to Black students, and found that UD offered more faculty members, more courses of study, more scholarships, accreditation and other opportunities.

As a result, UD became the first state-funded institution to desegregate by court order. This ruling preceded the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education by four years. After his death in 1998, the University of Delaware established the Louis L. Redding Chair for the Study of Law and Public Policy. A residence hall opened in 2013 at the University of Delaware's Newark campus was named after him.

Academics and Research

The university's main campus is in Newark, Delaware, and is led by President Laura Carlson. UD employs 4,774 people and houses ten colleges and schools, including the College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, College of Arts & Sciences, Lerner College of Business & Economics, College of Earth, Ocean and Environment, College of Education & Human Development, College of Engineering, College of Health Sciences, Graduate College, Honors College, and the Biden School.

UD is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity." In the latest Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey released by the National Science Foundation, UD ranks 47th out of 626 academic institutions across the United States when comparing non-medical school R&D expenditures. The University of Delaware is the main driver of research expenditures for the entire State, which brings cutting edge research seamlessly into Delaware industries and corporations.

A research centre, the Newark campus is home to the Center for Composite Materials, the Institute of Energy Conversion, the Disaster Research Center, and the Bartol Research Institute. The university's graduate programs have achieved national recognition in several disciplines. UD holds the #1 ranked Physical Therapy Graduate Program and the #7 ranked Chemical Engineering Program in the nation, according to U.S. News.

The Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration, commonly known as the Biden School, is among the university's most prominent programs. The Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration is the public policy school of the University of Delaware, located in Newark, Delaware. The school was announced in December 2018 and named after Joe Biden, later the 46th president of the United States. The school offers three undergraduate programs, six master's programs, an online MPA program, and four doctorate programs. The Master in Public Administration program is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) and is also the only MPA program in the state of Delaware to be NASPAA-accredited.

The campus size spans 2,312 acres. The student-faculty ratio at University of Delaware is 13:1, and it utilizes a 4-1-4-based academic calendar. The school's in-state tuition and fees are $17,660; out-of-state tuition and fees are $43,220.

STAR Campus and Physical Expansion

One of the most significant physical expansions in UD's modern history came in 2009, when the university acquired a large parcel of land formerly occupied by an automobile manufacturer. On October 23, 2009, the University of Delaware signed an agreement with Chrysler to purchase a shuttered vehicle assembly plant adjacent to the university for $24.25 million as part of Chrysler's bankruptcy restructuring plan. The university has developed the 272-acre site into the Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus. The site is the new home of UD's College of Health Sciences, which includes teaching and research laboratories and several public health clinics. The STAR Campus also includes research facilities for UD's vehicle-to-grid technology, as well as Delaware Technology Park, SevOne, CareNow, Independent Prosthetics and Orthotics, and the East Coast headquarters of Bloom Energy.

The acquisition of a 272-acre plot of land where a Chrysler factory had once operated marked the largest single-land purchase in the school's history, growing the campus footprint by 22 percent and bolstering its commitment to Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR). The STAR Campus represents the university's effort to bridge academic research with private sector innovation and economic development in New Castle County and the broader Delaware region.

Athletics

UD students, alumni, and sports teams are known as the "Fightin' Blue Hens", commonly shortened to "Blue Hens," and the school colors are Delaware blue and gold. The mascot of the University of Delaware is the state bird, the "Fightin' Blue Hen" named after the tenacious Delaware Continental regiments who fought with George Washington against the British at Long Island, Trenton, and Princeton.

UD fields 21 NCAA Division I teams and has won 10 national championships and 174 conference championships. The university's 2016 NCAA field hockey team was national champion. In athletics, UD began NCAA Division I competition in 1973 for men and 1982 for women. UD currently competes in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) for all sports. Football competes at the Championship Subdivision level, and all other sports compete at the Division I level.

The football program has a storied history. The Fightin' Blue Hens have won six national titles in their history — 1946 (AP College Division), 1963 (UPI College Division), 1971 (AP/UPI College Division), 1972 (AP/UPI College Division), 1979 (Division II), and 2003 (Division I-AA). The program has produced six NFL quarterbacks: Rich Gannon, Joe Flacco, Jeff Komlo, Pat Devlin, Andy Hall, and Scott Brunner. Former head football coaches Bill Murray, Dave Nelson and Harold "Tubby" Raymond are College Football Hall of Fame inductees. Delaware is one of only two schools to have three straight head coaches inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame (Georgia Tech is the other).

Notable Alumni

The University of Delaware's alumni network spans politics, science, business, and the arts. The school's first class included three signers of the Declaration of Independence and a signer of the Constitution, and the university's alumni have gone on to include a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, a Tony Award-winning choreographer, and the president of the United States.

Prominent figures include Joe Biden (U.S. President, BA 1965), Aubrey Plaza (actress), and Elena Delle Donne (WNBA star). Notable alumni from the University of Delaware include U.S. Senators Tom Carper and Chris Coons, WNBA star Elena Delle Donne, and members of The Chicks.

Among other distinguished alumni and honorary degree recipients are John C. Bogle (1929–2019), founder and CEO of The Vanguard Group, and Ben Carson, neurosurgeon. Craig Venter, biologist and founder of the Institute for Genomic Research, and Paul A. Volcker (1927–2019), former chairman of the Federal Reserve, also received honorary degrees from the university.

In the 2026 edition of Best Colleges, the University of Delaware is ranked No. 88 in National Universities by U.S. News & World Report. With an endowment exceeding $1.69 billion, UDel supports groundbreaking research and student success.