Yale University

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Yale University was founded in 1701 as the Collegiate School in the home of Abraham Pierson, its first rector, in Killingworth, Connecticut. In 1716 the school moved to New Haven and, with the generous gift by Elihu Yale of nine bales of goods, 417 books, and a portrait and arms of King George I, was renamed Yale College in 1718.

Yale embarked on a steady expansion, establishing the Medical Institution (1810), Divinity School (1822), Law School (1843), Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (1847), the School of Fine Arts (1869), and School of Music (1894). In 1887 Yale College became Yale University. It continued to add to its academic offerings with the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (1900), School of Nursing (1923), School of Drama (1955), School of Architecture (1972), and School of Management (1974).

As Yale enters its fourth century, it's goal is to become a truly global university—educating leaders and advancing the frontiers of knowledge not simply for the United States, but for the entire world. Richard C. Levin, the president of Yale University, says: “The globalization of the University is in part an evolutionary development. Yale has drawn students from outside the United States for nearly two centuries, and international issues have been represented in its curriculum for the past hundred years and more. But creating the global university is also a revolutionary development—signaling distinct changes in the substance of teaching and research, the demographic characteristics of students, the scope and breadth of external collaborations, and the engagement of the University with new audiences.”