Boston University (most commonly referred to as BU or otherwise known as Boston U.) is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian,[8] but is historically affiliated with the United Methodist Church.[9][10]

The university has more than 3,800 faculty members and 33,000 students, and is one of Boston’s largest employers.[11] It offers bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, and doctorates, and medical, dental, business, and law degrees through eighteen schools and colleges on two urban campuses. The main campus is situated along the Charles River in Boston’s Fenway-Kenmore and Allston neighborhoods, while the Boston University Medical Campus is in Boston’s South End neighborhood. BU also operates 75 study abroad programs in more than 33 cities in over twenty countries and has internship opportunities in ten different countries (including the United States).

BU is categorized as an RU/VH Research University (very high research activity) in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.[12] BU is a member of the Boston Consortium for Higher Education[13] and the Association of American Universities.

The university counts seven Nobel Laureates including Martin Luther King, Jr. (PhD ’55) and Elie Wiesel, 35 Pulitzer Prize winners, nine Academy Award winners, Emmy and Tony Award winners among its faculty and alumni. BU also has MacArthur, Sloan, and Guggenheim Fellowship holders as well as American Academy of Arts and Sciences and National Academy of Sciences members among its past and present graduates and faculty.

The Boston University Terriers compete in the NCAA’s Division I. BU athletic teams compete in the Patriot League, and Hockey East conferences, and their mascot is Rhett the Boston Terrier. Boston University is well known for men’s hockey, in which it has won five national championships, most recently in 2009.

Predecessor institutions and University Charter
Boston University traces its roots to the establishment of the Newbury Biblical Institute in Newbury, Vermont in 1839, and was chartered with the name “Boston University” by the Massachusetts Legislature in 1869. The University organized formal Centennial observances both in 1939 and 1969.[14]

On April 24–25, 1839 a group of Methodist ministers and laymen at the Old Bromfield Street Church in Boston elected to establish a Methodist theological school. Set up in Newbury, Vermont, the school was named the Newbury Biblical Institute.

In 1847, the Congregational Society in Concord, New Hampshire, invited the Institute to relocate to Concord and offered a disused Congregational church building with a capacity of 1200 people. Other citizens of Concord covered the remodeling costs. One stipulation of the invitation was that the Institute remain in Concord for at least 20 years. The charter issued by New Hampshire designated the school the “Methodist General Biblical Institute”, but it was commonly called the “Concord Biblical Institute.”

With the agreed twenty years coming to a close, the Trustees of the Concord Biblical Institute purchased 30 acres (120,000 m2) on Aspinwall Hill in Brookline, Massachusetts as a possible relocation site. The Institute moved in 1867 to 23 Pinkney Street in Boston and received a Massachusetts Charter as the “Boston Theological Institute.”

In 1869, three Trustees of the Boston Theological Institute obtained from the Massachusetts Legislature a charter for a university by name of “Boston University.” These three were successful Boston businessmen and Methodist laymen, with a history of involvement in educational enterprises and became the Founders of Boston University. They were Isaac Rich (1801–1872), Lee Claflin (1791–1871), and Jacob Sleeper (1802–1889), for whom Boston University’s three West Campus dormitories are named. Lee Claflin’s son, William, was then Governor of Massachusetts and signed the University Charter on May 26, 1869 after it was passed by the Legislature.

As reported by Kathleen Kilgore in her book, “Transformations, A History of Boston University” (see Further Reading), the Founders directed the inclusion in the Charter of the following provision, unusual for its time:

No instructor in said University shall ever be required by the Trustees to profess any particular religious opinions as a test of office, and no student shall be refused admission . . . on account of the religious opinions he may entertain; provided, nonetheless, that this section shall not apply to the theological department of said University.
Every department of the new university was also open to all on an equal footing regardless of sex, race, or (with the exception of the School of Theology) religion.