Harvard College and Harvard University are two separate institutions, but they are closely linked.
So Harvard College is the undergraduate school of Harvard University, and Harvard University is a research institution that includes Harvard College, as well as other graduate and professional schools.
But Harvard University was founded in 1636 by Puritan clergymen who fled England during the English Civil War to found an institution dedicated to advancing knowledge. The school was named after its first benefactor, John Harvard.
College was founded in 1869 when a group of prominent Boston families proposed creating a new kind of college where students could receive both a liberal arts education as well as professional training in law, medicine and engineering. This idea was controversial at the time because most colleges were focused on preparing students for careers in ministry or teaching.
In 1973, Harvard College and Radcliffe College merged into one entity called Harvard University. Radcliffe was formed in 1879 by merging two existing women’s colleges — the previously all-male Harvard Annex (founded 1878), which became the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; and the Society for Collegiate Instruction for Women (1870), which became Pembroke College.
Summary, Harvard University is a research institution that includes Harvard College, as well as other graduate and professional schools. It has more than 20,000 faculty members and more than 24,000 students enrolled in degree programs across its 12 schools and college. In addition to offering bachelor’s degrees in more than 100 fields of study, Harvard offers master’s degrees through its Graduate School of Arts and Sciences as well as doctoral programs through its Graduate School of Education and its John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).
