Boston University, private, coeducational institution in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1839 in Newbury, Vermont, the school was the first Methodist (see Methodism) seminary in the United States. In 1847 the school moved to Concord, New Hampshire, and in 1867 it moved to Boston, where it was chartered as the Boston Theological Seminary. In 1869 the school was chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and renamed Boston University.

The university is divided into six colleges: allied health sciences, communication, continuing education, engineering, general studies, and liberal arts; and nine schools: arts, dentistry, education, law, management, medicine (which includes the School of Public Health), social work, theology, and a graduate school. The university also includes the University Professors, a teaching program; and the International Graduate Centers, with graduate degree programs in six countries. It confers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees.

University facilities include the Arthur G. B. Metcalf Center for Science and Engineering; a 525-seat performance theater; and The Mugar Library, the largest of the 16 libraries, which houses 1.9 million volumes and 3.1 million microforms. The library’s Special Collections department includes the papers of American poets Walt Whitman and Robert Frost; and of the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. The Twentieth Century Archives’ extensive collection of personal memorabilia and artifacts include papers belonging to American clergyman and Nobel laureate Martin Luther King, Jr., and the American entertainers Bette Davis and Fred Astaire.

Other research facilities at the university include the Center for Remote Sensing, the Marine Biological Laboratory, the Center for Computational Science, and the Metcalf Science and Engineering Center for Photonics.