Duke University

Duke University was created in 1924 by James Buchanan Duke as a memorial to his father, Washington Duke. The school's mission is:

• To provide a superior liberal education to undergraduate students, attending not only to their intellectual growth but also to their development as adults who are committed to high ethical standards and full participation as leaders in their communities.
• To prepare future members of the learned professions for lives of skilled and ethical service by providing excellent graduate and professional education.
• To advance the frontiers of knowledge and contribute boldly to the international community of scholarship.
• To promote an intellectual environment built on a commitment to free and open inquiry.
• To help those who suffer, cure disease, and promote health through sophisticated medical research and thoughtful patient care.
• To provide wide ranging educational opportunities, on and beyond the school's campuses, for traditional students, active professionals and life-long learners by using the power of information technologies.
• And to promote a deep appreciation for the range of human difference and potential, a sense of the obligations and rewards of citizenship, and a commitment to learning, freedom and truth.

By pursuing these objectives with vision and integrity, Duke University seeks to engage the mind, elevate the spirit, and stimulate the best effort of all who are associated with the university. Duke also seeks to contribute in diverse ways to the local community, the state, the nation and the world, and to attain and maintain a place of real leadership in all that it does.