Harvard University (1653)

Harvard University, which celebrated its 350^th anniversary in 1986, is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. It is situated in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the eastern coast of the USA. Founded 16 years after the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth; the University has grown from nine students with a single master to an enrolment of more than 18,000 degree candidates, including undergraduates and students in 10 principal academic units. An additional 13,000 students are enrolled in one or more courses in the Harvard Extension School. Over 14,000 people work at Harvard, including more than 2,000 faculties.

Seven presidents of the United States – John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Theodore and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Rutherford B. Hayes, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and George W. Bush – were graduates of Harvard. Its faculty have produced 40 Nobel laureates.

Harvard College was established in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was named for its first benefactor, John Harvard of Charlestown, a young minister who, upon his death in 1638, left his library and half his estate to the new institution. Harvard's first scholarship fund was created in 1643 with a gift from Ann Radcliffe, Lady Mowlson.

During its early years, the College offered a classic academic course based on the English university model but consistent with the prevailing Puritan philosophy of the first colonists. Although many of its early graduates became ministers in Puritan congregations throughout New England, the College was never formally affiliated with a specific religious denomination.

The Harvard Corporation, known formally as the President and Fellows of Harvard College, is the University's executive board.

Harvard students represent an array of ethnic groups, religious traditions and political persuasions. They come from every region of the United States and more than 100 other countries.