Old Main

WSU is a comprehensive university. There are 14 schools and colleges, 357 subject areas, 126 bachelor, 139 master, 60 doctoral and 32 specialist programs. There are nearly 200,000 alumni of Wayne State, many of whom have assumed leadership positions in the communities of southeastern Michigan. Many successful doctors and health care professionals, lawyers, engineers, educators, business executives and managers, civic leaders, and community members obtained their education at WSU.

In 1994, WSU brought the total number of Carnegie "Research I Universities" to 88. Of the 3,600 accredited universities in the U.S., this select group offers a broad range of baccalaureate programs while demonstrating a commitment to graduate education and a significant capacity for research.

WSU is located in the heart of the Cultural Center. The Detroit Institute of the Arts, Detroit Historical Museum, Detroit Science Center, Museum of African American History and the main branch of the Detroit Public Library are all within easy walking distance.

The WSU main campus encompasses 203 acres of beautifully landscaped walkways and gathering spots linking more than 100 education and research buildings of both contemporary and classic design. Our extension centers, located in high-growth areas of the metropolitan area, provide convenient access to a wide selection of courses.

Wayne State University is a national research university with an urban teaching and service mission. It is a constitutionally autonomous public university within Michigan's system of public colleges and universities.

As a national research university, Wayne State is committed to high standards in research and scholarship. In the arts, it fosters creativity and strives for excellence in performance and exhibition. Its first priority is to develop new knowledge and encourage its application. Because it is a national research university, Wayne State develops and maintains strong graduate and professional programs in many fields. To maintain its standards, Wayne State seeks to strengthen those programs that have achieved national recognition while, at the same time, fostering those programs that show promise for the future. Wayne State strives to maintain its performance ranking as measured by its funded research, the quality of its graduate programs as evaluated by national studies of graduate education, and the effectiveness of all academic programs as assessed by external evaluation.

As an urban teaching university, and because its graduates typically remain to live and work in the area throughout their lives, Wayne State seeks especially to serve residents of the greater Detroit metropolitan area, although it enrolls students from across the state and nation as well as foreign lands. It makes available high quality educational programs in more than six hundred fields of study or concentration leading to more than three hundred different degrees at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels. As a nationally ranked university, Wayne State holds high expectations for the educational achievements of its students and consequently maintains selective admissions standards; but as an urban university it recognizes an obligation to develop special avenues that encourage access for promising students from disadvantaged educational backgrounds. The University aspires to implement its curricula in ways that serve the needs of a nontraditional student population that is racially and ethnically diverse, commuting, working, and raising families. Its student body is composed of students of traditional college age together with many older students, and includes many who are from the first generation in their family or neighborhood to attend a university. In its teaching, the University strives to be sensitive to the special experiences, conditions, and opportunities presented by this diversity in its student body. To meet its obligations to its nontraditional students, the University attempts to schedule classes throughout the metropolitan area and during the evening as well as during the day.

Wayne State University recognizes its obligation to serve. Like other major universities, it strives to serve the disciplines and professions represented among its academic programs as well as public and private sector organizations and associations at local, state, and national levels. As an urban university, it makes a special commitment to the Detroit metropolitan area in three ways: first, it uses its metropolitan locale as a setting for basic and applied research and fosters the development of new knowledge of urban physical and social environments; second, it employs its locale as a teaching laboratory and incorporates metropolitan area materials into its curriculum; and third, it brings knowledge to bear to assist and strengthen the metropolitan area. In particular, Wayne State University contributes to the economic revitalization of southeastern Michigan through research programs that develop new technology and teaching programs that educate the citizens who will live and work in the region in the coming years.

Wayne State University respects and protects the personal and academic freedom of its students, faculty and academic staff. The programs and activities of the University are open to all qualified persons without regard to race, religion, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, age, national or ethnic origin, political belief, or physical handicap, except as may be required by law. The University seeks to demonstrate, through all its programs and activities, its appreciation of human diversity and to maintain an atmosphere of tolerance and mutual respect that will nourish human liberty and democratic citizenship. A relatively youthful state university -- part of Michigan's state supported system of higher education only since 1956 -- Wayne State University has developed rapidly as a national research university with urban teaching and service missions. Nevertheless, it recognizes that much must be achieved before the goals it holds for itself are fully attained. It is pursuing those goals with pride in its progress and confidence in its future.