University of Massachusetts Amherst

Overview

The University of Massachusetts (UMass) was established in 1863 as the Massachusetts Agricultural College and adopted its current name in 1947. It encompasses five campuses located in Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and Worcester (UMass Medical School), making it the only public research university system in Massachusetts and one of the top public university systems worldwide. The UMass system contributes over $6 billion annually to the state’s economy.

The Amherst campus, which is the largest of the five, houses around 30,000 of UMass's total 73,000 students. Additionally, UMass Online, founded in 2001, offers more than 1,500 courses and 150 certificate and degree programs, with nearly 70,000 enrollments to date. UMass faculty members include notable individuals such as Nobel Laureate Craig Mello, Pulitzer Prize winner Madeleine Blais, former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, and National Book Award finalist Andre Dubus III.

Marty Meehan, a graduate of UMass Lowell, currently serves as the president of the UMass system. He is the first UMass undergraduate alumnus to hold this position, having previously served as chancellor of UMass Lowell from 2007 to 2015.