History

The University of New Haven (UNH) was founded in 1920 as the New Haven YMCA Junior College, a division of Northeastern University. The college offered instruction in business and engineering to local students. The university also owed much to Yale University, for the use of its buildings and laboratories and for the assistance of its faculty and graduate students for nearly forty years.

A Campus
Because of the growing student demand for day as well as evening courses, the university first built a modern classroom building near East Rock in New Haven in 1958; in the same year it also received state authorization to offer bachelor of science degrees in engineering and business. Outgrowing even its new building, the university acquired the former New Haven County Orphanage complex (now known as Ellis C. Maxcy Hall) in West Haven in 1960. With a campus consisting of three buildings – Maxcy Hall, the Gate House, and a Student Services building – the university embarked on an aggressive building program throughout the 1960s. In 1965 the first building to be completed was the Student Center, now known as Bartels Hall. The construction of Buckman Hall and dormitories followed, and UNH continues to develop its campus to this day.

The Curriculum
UNH not only added new buildings, it enlarged the scope of its academic degrees into the arts and sciences, public safety, hotel and restaurant administration, and graduate education. New Haven College received full accreditation for its baccalaureate programs from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges in 1966.

In 1969, the college took a major step forward with the addition of the Graduate School. Initially offering programs in business administration and industrial engineering, the Graduate School expanded rapidly.

Since the 1970s both the undergraduate and graduate student population have included significant numbers of international students attracted by the university’s career-oriented programs in the colleges of Business, Engineering, Arts and Sciences, and Criminal Justice and the Forensic Sciences.  A number of the university’s undergraduate degree programs have been nationally recognized, most notably the nationally-accredited engineering programs, forensic science, and music and sound recording.  UNH currently offers more than one hundred undergraduate and graduate degree programs.  Faculty have come to UNH with degrees from prestigious American and European universities and have established an impressive record of research and publication.