The University of Connecticut (UConn) has long been a leader in higher education in the Northeast, drawing top students from the east coast, and serving as both a beacon for academic excellence and a center for technological innovation. The rise of the University over the last two decades has been astounding, and the Institution is achieving new heights of academic success – doubling research grants, attracting top students, and offering programs that continue to grow in prestige. Its faculty members today comprise leaders in their field on the national and international levels.
The University’s campuses, where more than 30,000 students are enrolled in 101 undergraduate majors and 86 graduate fields of study, are situated in a prime location between New York and Boston, and are being revitalized through a visionary, billion-dollar investment from the state of Connecticut.
What Sets UConn Apart?
Investment in Faculty Hiring
UConn has embarked on one of the most ambitious, multi-year hiring initiatives (http://uconn.edu/facultyhiring/) in the history of public higher education. This program to hire 500 faculty will provide outstanding teaching and mentorship to students; enhance learning outcomes by reducing the student to faculty ratio to 15:1; and assure the University’s standing as a leading research university. The University will hire outstanding faculty with expertise across disciplines and thematic areas that are nationally-recognized for excellence including: Environment and Sustainability, The Digital Cutting Edge, Frontiers in Science & Engineering, Language and Culture, Revolutionizing Education, Health and Health Policy, and Theater Innovation & The Arts.
Investment in the Physical Infrastructure
Investment from the State of Connecticut has been instrumental in the dramatic growth of the University. The University is rebuilding and enhancing its campuses through UCONN 2000 and 21st Century UConn, a two-phase $2.3 billion state investment in the University's future. These landmark programs created more than 10 million square feet of new and renovated space for research, teaching, living, and learning. With support from the state and private donors, the University is poised to continue to invest in a modern infrastructure to meet our ambitious teaching and research mission.
Investments in Research & Economic Development
The $865 million Bioscience CT initiative together with a major new collaboration with Jackson Laboratories will create new opportunities for cutting-edge research. This plan bolsters Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s vision to reinvent the Connecticut economy by harnessing sustainable economic growth based on bioscience research, innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialization, and helps to secure the UConn Health Center’s future as a top tier academic medical center.
Bioscience Connecticut, an $864 million renovation and expansion project focused on the UConn Health Center campus, will include upgrades to the University’s Health Center research labs and hospital, as well a
s a doubling of the amount of incubator space for small-business startups in the bioscience field.
With this plan, UConn looks forward to recruiting additional eminent faculty; increasing the size of the institution’s medical and dental schools; creating thousands of jobs; and turning the institution into a world-class center of bioscience and medical research in the years to come.
Jackson Laboratories, an internationally renowned genetics research laboratory, has partnered with the University of Connecticut in the construction of a state-of-the-art, $1 billion-dollar facility on the UConn Health Center campus that will house a new genomics program dedicated to research in the emerging field of personalized medicine.
Listed among the top 10 corporate facility projects worldwide in 2011 by trade magazine Site Selection, this unprecedented partnership will foster collaboration between Jackson Labs experts and UConn’s own academic researchers and physicians; lead to rapid innovations around specific medical problems; provide fresh insights into emerging health care needs; and enable Connecticut to assume a position of global leadership in developing medical treatments tailored to individual patients’ unique genetic makeup.
UConn Technology Park and Eminent Faculty Program
The UConn Technology Park is designed to provide designated space for industry-university collaboration, bringing together world-class University scholars and researchers with entrepreneurs in such fields as aerospace, defense, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, and sustainable energy.
The UConn Tech Park will include highly specialized facilities that will attract prominent industry partners; will enable collaborations that will lead to advanced product development, novel ideas for manufacturing, and new technologies; will provide increased opportunities for commercialization and successful business startups; and will create thousands of new jobs in Connecticut. The Tech Park, a critical component of the state’s future economic growth, will secure UConn’s position as a leader in high-tech innovation and as a key research and development partner to regional and national industries, and will enhance the State of Connecticut’s global competitiveness.
Additionally, a new state-funded Eminent Faculty program will enable UConn to hire 25 to 30 new faculty members who are at the leading edge of their fields to collaborate with industry partners in R&D that will lead to innovative breakthroughs and commercialization.