The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hartford and 90 minutes from Boston.
UConn was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two brothers who donated the land for the school. In 1893, the school became a public land grant college, becoming the University of Connecticut in 1939. Over the following decade, social work, nursing and graduate programs were established, while the schools of law and pharmacy were also absorbed into the university. During the 1960s, UConn Health was established for new medical and dental schools. John Dempsey Hospital opened in Farmington in 1975.
The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". The university has been considered a Public Ivy. UConn is one of the founding institutions of the Hartford, Connecticut/Springfield, Massachusetts regional economic and cultural partnership alliance known as New England's Knowledge Corridor. UConn was the second U.S. university invited into Universities 21, an international network of 24 research-intensive universities who work together to foster global citizenship. UConn is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.
Competing in the Big East Conference as the Huskies, UConn has been highly successful in their women's and men's basketball programs. The Huskies have won 21 NCAA championships. The UConn Huskies are the top women's basketball program in the nation, having won a record 11 NCAA Division I National Championships (tied with the UCLA Bruins men's basketball team) and a women's record four in a row (2013–2016),plus over 40 conference regular season and tournament championships. UConn also holds the two longest winning streaks of any gender in college basketball history.
