Washington University in St. Louis

The Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) was founded in 1853 by Wayman Crow, a St. Louis merchant, and William Greenleaf Eliot, a religious minister (and the grandfather of poet TS Eliot), in response to the lack of higher learning institutions in the growing Midwest.

Named after George Washington, the university is now a private research institution with around 16,500 students drawn from all 50 US states and more than 110 different countries.

WashU is organised around seven schools: art and architecture, arts and sciences, business, continuing education, engineering, law, medicine, and social work and public health. It comprises over 175 buildings spread across five, centrally-located campuses.

The main Danforth Campus is the academic home to the majority of the university's undergraduate, graduate and professional students. The Washington University Medical Camous is home to the School of Medicine.

Other WashU campuses include the site of a former St. Louis department store and another that comprises a 2,000-acre outdoor laboratory for learning and research.

The university claims several areas of research focus including biotechnology, plant science and business development.

With several strategic partnerships in place at global universities, WashU students have various opportunities to travel and study abroad. Among them are elective rotations for medical students in overseas clinics throughout Africa, Asia and South America, while law students can undertake internships in the Netherlands. The university also has a reciprocal student exchange programme with Fudan University in Shanghai, China.

Around one-third of WashU’s students engage in study abroad programs, 80 per cent of undergraduate students pursue multiple majors and/or minors, and about 60 per cent participate in community service

A total of 26 Nobel Laureates have been affiliated with WashU over the years, and its alumni includes 11 Pulitzer Prize winners, four Poet Laureates of the United States and 15 recipients of the National Medal of Science.

The university’s motto, Per Veritatem Vis, translates as ‘Strength through Truth.’