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Purdue University
Sign in to saveAlso known as Indiana Agricultural College, PU
public research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States
Key facts
- Former name
- Indiana Agricultural College (1865–1869)
- Type
- Public land-grant research university
- Established
- May 6, 1869 ; 157 years ago ( 1869-05-06 )
- Founder
- John Purdue
- Parent institution
- Purdue University System
- Accreditation
- HLC
- Academic affiliations
- AAU ORAU URA Sea-grant Space-grant
- Endowment
- $4.44 billion (2024)
- President
- Mung Chiang
- Provost
- Patrick J. Wolfe
- Academic staff
- 3,193 (fall 2025)
- Students
- 57,876 (fall 2025)
- Undergraduates
- 43,633 (fall 2025)
- Postgraduates
- 14,243 (fall 2025)
- Campus
- Small city , 2,660 acres (10.8 km )
- Newspaper
- Purdue Exponent
- Colors
- Old gold and black
- Nickname
- Boilermakers
via Wikipedia infobox
Research organization · ROR
- Type
- Education, Funder
- Founded
- 1869
- Location
- West Lafayette, United States
- Status
- Active
GRID grid.169077.e · ISNI 0000 0004 1937 2197
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system, which also includes Purdue University in Indianapolis as an ongoing expansion of the West Lafayette campus. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money to establish a college of science, technology, and agriculture; the first classes were held on September 16, 1874.
Purdue University is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". Purdue enrolls the largest student body of any individual university campus in Indiana, as well as the ninth-largest foreign student population of any university in the United States. The university is home to the world's oldest computer science degree-granting department and the first university-owned airport in the United States.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Purdue University” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.