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Webster University is a private university with its main campus in Webster Groves, Missouri, United States as well as campuses in Europe and Asia. The university has an alumni net…
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Investigate this subjectWebster University is a private university with its main campus in Webster Groves, Missouri, United States as well as campuses in Europe and Asia. The university has an alumni network of around 200,000 graduates worldwide.
Webster University is a private university with its main campus in Webster Groves, Missouri, United States as well as campuses in Europe and Asia. The university has an alumni network of around 200,000 graduates worldwide.
The college was founded in 1915 by the Sisters of Loretto as Loretto College, a Catholic women's college, one of the first west of the Mississippi River. One of the early founders was Mother Praxedes Carty. Its name was changed to Webster College, after Senator Daniel Webster, in 1924. The first male students were admitted in 1962. The sisters transferred ownership of the college to a lay Board of Directors in 1967; it was the first Catholic college in the United States to be totally under lay control. In 1983, Webster College's name was changed to Webster University.
Webster was involved in the early racial integration battles in St. Louis. During the early 1940s, many local priests, especially the Jesuits, challenged the segregationist policies at the city's Catholic colleges and parochial schools. The St. Louis chapter of the Midwest Clergy Conference on Negro Welfare arranged in 1943 for Webster College to admit a black female student, Mary Aloyse Foster, which would make it the city's first Catholic college to integrate. However, in 1943 Archbishop John J. Glennon blocked that student's enrollment by speaking privately with the Kentucky-based Superior General of the Sisters of Loretto. The Pittsburgh Courier, an African-American newspaper with national circulation, discovered Glennon's actions and ran a front-page feature on the Webster incident in February 1944. The negative publicity toward Glennon's segregationist policies led Saint Louis University to begin admitting African American students in summer 1944. In the fall of 1945, Webster College responded to pressure by admitting Irene Thomas, a Catholic African-American woman from St. Louis, as a music major.
In the 1960s, the school dropped its Catholic affiliation following the issuance of the Land O'Lakes Statement. The school's then-president, Jacqueline Grennan, renounced her religious vows and continued as head of what had effectively become a secular institution.
Colleges include:
College of Humanities & Social Sciences
College of Science and Health
Leigh Gerdine College of Fine Arts
George Herbert Walker School of Business & Technology
School of Communications
School of Education
Webster University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Specific programs are accredited by specialized accreditors, including the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), the National League for Nursing (NLN), the Council on Accreditation (COA), the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and the National Board for Certified Counselors.
In 2026, Webster University was ranked 32nd in Regional Universities Midwest and 41st in Best Value Schools by U.S. News & World Report.
Webster University maintains a Confucius Institute in partnership with Beijing Language and Culture University. In 2019, US senator Josh Hawley asked Webster University to close its Confucius Institute.
Webster University's home campus is located in Webster Groves, a suburb of St. Louis. It has two other campuses in the St. Louis metropolitan area and a campus in San Antonio, Texas. Several international campuses are located in European countries including Switzerland, Austria, Georgia, and the Netherlands. Three campuses are located in Asia: one in Uzbekistan and two in China.
In addition to its own international campuses, Webster has also formed partnerships with a few universities that are based in their countries of interest. For example, the Webster Graduate School was until 2015 tied with Regent's University London; and Webster maintains a relationship with universities including Kansai University in Osaka, Japan and the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara in Guadalajara, Mexico. As of 2025–26, faculty-led study abroad opportunities include programs in Costa Rica, Ghana, and Ecuador.
In 2015, Webster released a report on its Thailand campus citing several issues, including badly inadequate facilities and a culture of distrust between students and the administration. The report also cited several strengths on the campus, including strong academics and financial stability, saying "recruitment, marketing and admissions" are an area of strength for the campus. One month after the internal report was issued, a campus ombudsman was appointed to address the communications issues and to bring the Thailand campus more in-line with the home campus' policies. Webster closed the Thailand campus in December 2021.
Webster University's athletic mascot is the Gorlok, named in honor of the school's location at the corner of Gore and Lockwood Avenues in Webster Groves. Athletic teams participate in the NCAA Division III and in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC).
Men's sports: baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, and track and field
Women's sports: basketball, cross country, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field, and volleyball
Webster's baseball team has made back to back trips to the Division III World Series, placing fifth in both 2012 and 2013. They also made the Division III World Series in 2015. They made it to the regional Division III championship in 2014 but were defeated in the first round. Major League pitcher Josh Fleming played for Webster.
Webster's chess team has won more national titles than any college team in the country and has been ranked #1 continuously since 2012. In April 2025, Webster's chess team won its seventh national championship earning the distinction of having the most President's Cup championships than any other college program in the United States. Webster previously won the national title in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 20
Source: Webster University (CC BY-SA)
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