Webster University

Webster University is a private institution of higher education in the state of Missouri that has its primary campus located in Webster Groves. It has a number of branch offices spread out around the United States, as well as in other nations in Europe, Asia, and Africa. It provides undergraduate and graduate degrees in a wide variety of fields, including as the liberal arts, artistic and performing arts, teacher education, business and management, and more. In 2021, Webster enrolled 6,741 students. The university's alumni network includes around 170,000 graduates from throughout the globe.

Loretto College, a Catholic women's college, was one of the first institutions of its kind established west of the Mississippi River when it was established in 1915 by the Sisters of Loretto. Mother Praxedes Carty was one of the early founders of the organisation. In 1924, the school became known as Webster College when its name was altered. In 1962, the institution welcomed its first male pupils. In 1967, the sisters sold their ownership of the institution to a lay Board of Directors, making it the first Catholic college in the United States to be run entirely by laypeople. In 1983, the institution formerly known as Webster College became known as Webster University.

Webster was an active participant in the early struggles for racial integration in St. Louis. At the beginning of the 1940s, a large number of local priests, most notably the Jesuits, fought against the segregationist rules that were in place at the Catholic universities and parochial schools in the city. In 1943, the St. Louis chapter of the Midwest Clergy Conference on Negro Welfare made the necessary arrangements for Webster College to accept a black female student by the name of Mary Aloyse Foster. This action made Webster College the first Catholic college in the city to integrate its student body. Nevertheless, in 1943 Archbishop John J. Glennon prevented that student from enrolling by having a private conversation with the Superior General of the Sisters of Loretto, who was headquartered in Kentucky. When Glennon's acts were found, an article about the Webster incident was published on the front page of the Pittsburgh Courier, an African-American newspaper that had a national distribution at the time. This took place in February of 1944. Saint Louis University started accepting African American students in the summer of 1944 as a direct result of the unfavourable publicity surrounding Glennon's segregationist policy.

Schools include the George Herbert Walker School of Business & Technology, the School of Communications, the School of Education, and the Leigh Gerdine College of Fine Arts. Other schools include the College of Humanities & Social Sciences, the College of Health and Science, and the Leigh Gerdine College of Fine Arts.

The Higher Learning Commission has conferred its accreditation to Webster University. Specialized accreditors, such as 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, are responsible for the accreditation of particular programmes.

According to U.S. News & World Report's regional university rankings for the Midwest in 2022, Webster University placed sixteenth overall.