About Wayne State University
Wayne State University is a nationally recognized research institution dedicated to preparing students to excel in an increasingly fast-paced and interconnected global society. As Michigan’s only urban research university, Wayne State occupies a unique niche as a catalyst for investigating and helping to resolve the myriad issues facing residents of the contemporary urban environment.
Reflecting its location and the excellent international reputation of its graduate schools, particularly in the sciences, Wayne State boasts the most diverse student body among Michigan’s public universities. Students from nearly 100 countries attend classes on the main campus. Wayne State students not only are part of a richly diverse learning and social community; the university also is in the forefront of the globalization movement in higher education with a wealth of opportunities for internationally themed coursework and study-abroad programs.
Wayne State takes its responsibility to its city and state very seriously, and, as an urban university, supports the conviction that American society is infinitely strengthened by the participation of people from many cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Such participation ideally begins with the ability of higher education to assist ethnic and racial minorities in particular, but citizens of all cultures and races in general, to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to function in the broader community as responsible, productive citizens. Wayne State University therefore routinely accepts a number of high-risk but promising students from the adjacent urban and metropolitan areas; many of them thereby receive a chance for academic and personal growth that almost certainly is unavailable elsewhere.
By providing an opportunity for higher education to disadvantaged students with obvious potential, and by assisting them with programs promoting academic and person achievement, Wayne State adds to Michigan’s complement of skilled, informed, productive and tax-paying citizens. The university shares the risk, of course; some students simply will not make it. But those who do succeed because Wayne State went the extra mile are an especially precious resource.
Like any great public research university, Wayne State’s most easily recognized contributions to the life of its home state are an educated, informed workforce; the creation and application of new knowledge; and direct, practical services to the broader community. More than 75 percent of Wayne State University’s 235,000 alumni live in Michigan; through programs, partnerships, the fruits of its research and the talents of its alumni, Wayne State University plays a significant and increasingly influential role in the educational, social, cultural and economic life of Michigan.
Over time the strength of Wayne State’s research enterprise has made it truly an international force for positive change. Research at Wayne State is especially significant for the way in which it draws on both the strengths and challenges of our urban environment – employing metropolitan Detroit as classroom while directing our expertise to help resolve many of the issues peculiar to large cities across the nation.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching classifies Wayne State as RU/VH (Research University, Very High research activity), a distinction held by only 3.6 percent of institutions of higher education in the United States. WSU ranks among the nation’s top 50 public universities for research expenditures ($239 million), according to The National Science Foundation. Much of Wayne State's research originates in its acclaimed School of Medicine, the nation’s largest single-campus medical school.
TechTown, the university’s research and technology park, is stimulating the creation of new businesses and jobs in Midtown Detroit with the help of a community of entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, service providers and corporate partners. The park’s signature building, TechOne, has 70 tenants and a list of companies waiting to come online as space is developed. Approximately 300 tenants are expected in TechTown by buildout.
TechTown’s major tenant, NextEnergy, is a non-profit corporation founded to enable the commercialization of energy technologies that positively contribute to economic competitiveness, energy security, and the environment. NextEnergy is charged to accelerate research, development and manufacturing of alternative energy technologies to advance the Alternative Energy Technology industry in Michigan.
Wayne State is a partner in the University Research Corridor (URC), with the University of Michigan and Michigan State University. The URC is an alliance designed to leverage the intellectual capital of the state’s three public research universities to transform, strengthen and diversify the state’s economy. URC institutions encourage regional economic development through invention, innovation and technology transfer, by educating a work force prepared for the high-tech knowledge economy, and by attracting good brains and profitable businesses to Michigan.
The University Research Corridor partners have allied to communicate to the business community, researchers and students, policymakers and other stakeholders the vital role the three universities have played, and will play, in renewing the state’s economy. In an era of global competition and severe economic challenges, research universities serve as economic engines offering Michigan and the United States strategic advantages through sophisticated science, technology, math and engineering education.
Over the past five years, the URC institutions have announced an average of one new invention every day, and collectively these discoveries have led to more than 500 license agreements for new technologies and systems. Detroit News columnist Dan Howes wrote that these three universities together offer “the closest thing Michigan has to Silicon Valley—an intellectual powerhouse.”