University of Delaware

University of Delaware International Student Insurance

The University of Delaware (UD), located in Newark, Delaware, is a public research university and the largest institution of higher education in the state. Its antecedent school, which changed its name and location several times, was established in 1743, making it one of the oldest schools in the U.S. It was officially chartered as the Academy of Newark in 1769. In 1833, the State of Delaware chartered a college to operate alongside the Academy, and New Ark College opened the following year. Its name changed to Delaware College in 1843. Due to financial problems and the Civil War, the college closed its doors from 1859–1870. It became the University of Delaware in 1921 and became co-educational in 1945. 

Today, UD enrolls more than 24,000 students and counting each year. The school colors are blue and yellow, and its athletic nickname is the Fightin’ Blue Hens.

University of Delaware Academic Opportunities for International Students

UD offers about 140 bachelor’s programs, 115 master’s programs, 44 doctoral programs, and 4 associate’s degrees and counting across its eight colleges: the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources; the College of Arts and Sciences; the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics; the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment; the College of Education and Human Development; the College of Engineering; the College of Health Sciences; and the Graduate College.

UD was the first school in the U.S. to offer a study-abroad program when a professor took a group of nine students to Paris, France, in 1923. It’s also one of four schools on the continent to offer an art conservation major. 

UD Research Initiatives

Noteworthy research initiatives at UD include the Institute of Energy Conversion; the Disaster Research Center; the Delaware Biotechnology Institute; and the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Institute, created by the School of Public Policy and Administration in honor of then-U.S. Vice President and UD alumnus Joe Biden.

Notable Alumni

Notable University of Delaware alumni include Biden; his wife, Jill Biden; former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie; three signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence; Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David E. Hoffman; NASA astronaut Lodewijk van der Berg; comedy writer Neil Casey; Chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee Larry Probst; and Nobel Prize-winning microbiologist Daniel Nathans.