The following is a list of colleges and universities in the U.S. state of Connecticut . This list includes all schools that grant degrees at an associates level or higher, and are either accredited or in the process of accreditation by a recognized accrediting agency.
The state's flagship public university is the University of Connecticut, [1] which is also the largest school in the state. The remainder of the state's public institutions constitute the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities, comprising four state universities, twelve community colleges, and an online school, Charter Oak State College. [2] Connecticut is also the home of one of the five federally-run service academies, the United States Coast Guard Academy.
The oldest college in the state, founded in 1701, is Yale University. [3]
Two institutions are licensed by the Connecticut Office of Higher Education to offer academic degrees, but are not accredited by a recognized accrediting body: [23]
Several institutions based in other states offer, or have offered, degree programs at sites in Connecticut, under license from the state: [24]
Several schools that once operated in the state have closed, discontinued their degree programs, or moved to other states:
The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, the school became a public land grant college, then took its current name in 1939. Over the following decade, social work, nursing, and graduate programs were established. During the 1960s, UConn Health was established for new medical and dental schools. UConn is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education.
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, 34 miles outside of New York City. It is the sixth-most populous city in New England. Stamford is also the largest city in the Western Connecticut Planning Region, and Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2020 census. It is in the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk-Danbury metropolitan statistical area, which is part of the New York City metropolitan area.
The University of Bridgeport is a private university in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The university is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. In 2021, the university was purchased by Goodwin University; it retained its own name, brand, and board of trustees.
Sacred Heart University (SHU) is a private, Roman Catholic university in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was founded in 1963 by Walter W. Curtis, Bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Sacred Heart was the first Catholic university in the United States to be staffed by the laity.
The University of Hartford (UHart) is a private university in West Hartford, Connecticut. Its 350-acre (1.4 km2) main campus extends into neighboring Hartford and Bloomfield. The university is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education.
Ella Rosa Giovianna Oliva Grasso was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as the 83rd governor of Connecticut from January 8, 1975, to December 31, 1980, after rejecting past offers of candidacies for Senate and governor. She was the first woman elected governor in Connecticut and the fourth woman to be elected governor of a U.S. state. She is also the first female governor to not be the spouse or widow of a former governor. She resigned as governor due to her battle with ovarian cancer.
The Diocese of Bridgeport is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Catholic Church located in the southwestern part of the state of Connecticut in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Hartford.
The University of Saint Joseph is a private Roman Catholic university in West Hartford, Connecticut. It was founded in 1932 as a women's college by the Sisters of Mercy of Connecticut and began admitting men to its undergraduate programs in 2018. The university is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. There are 857 undergraduate and 959 graduate students.
Bridgeport station is a shared Amtrak and Metro-North Railroad train station along the Northeast Corridor serving Bridgeport, Connecticut and nearby towns. On Metro-North, the station is the transfer point between the Waterbury Branch and the main New Haven Line. Amtrak's inter-city Northeast Regional and Vermonter service also stop at the station. In addition the transfer point for Greater Bridgeport Transit Authority buses, the departure point for the Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Ferry across Long Island Sound to Port Jefferson, New York, and both the Total Mortgage Arena and the Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater are located adjacent to the station.
Annhurst College was a private American Catholic college in South Woodstock, Connecticut, which operated from 1941 to 1980. The school was founded and administered by the Daughters of the Holy Spirit, a religious congregation of women founded in France in 1706, who are primarily dedicated to education. The college's curriculum was career-focused.
Woodstock Academy (WA), founded in 1801, is a high school located in Woodstock, Connecticut, United States. The Academy, which describes itself as an independent school, serves residents from the Connecticut towns of Brooklyn, Canterbury, Eastford, Pomfret, Union, and Woodstock. The respective towns' taxpayers pay student tuition through municipal taxes, and therefore state agencies and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) categorize Woodstock as a public school. The school also accepts tuition-paying students from surrounding towns and states as day students, and students from around the country and the world as residential students.
CT State Community College Norwalk, formerly Norwalk Community College (NCC), Norwalk State Technical College and Norwalk Community-Technical College, is a public community college in Norwalk, Connecticut. It is the third-largest of the twelve colleges in the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities (CSCU) system. The school, which has an open admissions policy, offers 45 associate degree and 26 certificate programs.
Paier College is a private for-profit art college in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Previously located in Hamden, Connecticut, Paier is the only independent art college in Connecticut.
Hyde School is a private, co-educational, college-preparatory boarding school for grades 9–12 and postgraduate in Bath, Maine, United States. It was founded in 1966 by Joseph W. Gauld who wanted to "set up a school devoted to developing self-confidence and self-discipline."
Tunxis Community College is a public community college in Farmington, Connecticut. Opened in 1969, it is named after the Tunxis Native American Tribe and is part of the Connecticut Community Colleges system.
The 2010 Connecticut gubernatorial election took place on November 2, 2010, to elect the 88th Governor of Connecticut. Incumbent Republican Governor Jodi Rell had announced in a press conference in Hartford on November 9, 2009, that she would not seek re-election in 2010. The sites Cook Political Report and CQ Politics both rated the election as a toss-up. This was the first open seat gubernatorial election in the state since 1994. As of 2024, this is the last time the Governor's office in Connecticut changed partisan control.
Goodwin University is a private university in East Hartford, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1962 as the Data Institute Businss School. It became a subsidiary of the University of Bridgeport in January 2021.
Porter and Chester Institute is a for-profit technical school with nine locations and ten career programs throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts in the United States.
Jason L. McCoy is the former mayor of Vernon, Connecticut, and a trial lawyer. In 2009, McCoy was elected to his first term in 2007. McCoy was re-elected as mayor. He had served on the Vernon Town Council and was the deputy mayor of Vernon from 2005 to 2007. In 2009, McCoy was one of six mayors in Connecticut chosen by the Governor M. Jodi Rell to work closely with state officials and lawmakers to identify savings and recommend mandate relief to help close Connecticut's state budget shortfall. McCoy served as mayor of a municipality that holds town meetings to pass the mayor's yearly proposed municipal budget, which can then be sent to referendum for approval by privately cast ballot. During McCoy's two terms as mayor of Vernon he proposed and passed four municipal budgets. The Town of Vernon municipal budgets during McCoy's terms as mayor resulted in the municipal tax rate or mil rate needed to fund the municipal budget being reduced in the 2008–09, 2009–10 budgets, the 2010–11 tax rate or mil rate remained the same. In the 2011–12 budget the tax rate was cut which resulted in a taxes cut to the taxpayers in the Town of Vernon, Connecticut. The 2011–12 budget proposal was passed and adopted at the annual town meeting as opposed to being sent to referendum.
The Board of Regents for Higher Education (BOR) is a government body in the U.S. state of Connecticut that oversees the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities (CSCU). CSCU and the BOR were created on July 1, 2011, consolidating the governance of the state's twelve community colleges, four state universities, and Charter Oak State College. The BOR assumed the powers and responsibilities of the respective former Boards of Trustees and the Board for State Academic Awards; it also retains many responsibilities for setting statewide policy of the former Board of Governors for Higher Education.