Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a leading national research university and the state of New Jersey's preeminent, comprehensive public institution of higher education. Established in 1766, the university is the eighth oldest higher education institution in the United States. More than 80,000 students, from all 50 states and more than 125 countries, and 22,500 faculty and staff learn, work, and serve the public at Rutgers locations across New Jersey and around the world.

Colonial College

Chartered in 1766 as an all-male Queen's College in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the school, affiliated with the Dutch Reformed Church, was renamed Rutgers College in 1825 in honor of trustee and Revolutionary War veteran Colonel Henry Rutgers. In the mid-19th century, Congress established the nation's land-grant colleges in response to the Industrial Revolution. In 1864, Rutgers prevailed over Princeton to become New Jersey's land-grant institution, tasked with offering educational access to a wider range of students who would be the new workforce for America's expanding businesses, factories, and farms.

Modern University

Access for women arrived in 1918 when the New Jersey College for Women (now Douglass Residential College) was founded. In 1945 and 1956, state legislative acts designated Rutgers as The State University of New Jersey, a public institution. The University of Newark (now Rutgers University-Newark) joined Rutgers in 1946, followed by the College of South Jersey (now Rutgers University-Camden) in 1950, which gave Rutgers a statewide presence.

In 1989, Rutgers University-New Brunswick was invited to join the Association of American Universities, making Rutgers' flagship one of the top 62 research universities in North America. In 2013, a state legislative act transferred to Rutgers much of the former University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, creating Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences and dramatically expanding Rutgers' mission to include academic medicine and wide-ranging patient care. In the same year, Rutgers University-New Brunswick joined the Big Ten Academic Alliance, a consortium of 14 leading universities that includes all members of the Big Ten Conference.

With 29 schools and colleges, Rutgers University offers over 150 undergraduate majors and more than 400 graduate programs and degrees. The university graduates more than 16,000 students each year and has more than 500,000 living alumni residing in all 50 states and on six continents.