Roger Williams University

Roger Williams University is a private university located in Bristol, Rhode Island. Founded in 1956, it operates a suburban waterfront campus overlooking Mount Hope Bay. The university offers undergraduate and graduate programs across disciplines including architecture, engineering, business, liberal arts, and social sciences, as well as a School of Law that opened in 1993. Roger Williams University enrolls approximately 4,000 undergraduate and several hundred graduate students. It began as a junior college and later expanded to offer bachelor’s and professional degrees. The institution attracts students interested in applied learning, coastal and environmental studies, architecture, justice studies, and law within a small to mid-sized campus environment.

Roger Williams University was founded in 1956 when the YMCA’s Providence Institute of Engineering and Finance received a state charter to become Roger Williams Junior College in Rhode Island. The institution’s roots trace back to 1919, when Northeastern University operated programs in a Providence YMCA building, later transitioning to local control in 1940. In 1956, the school became a two-year, degree-granting institution and soon expanded its academic offerings. During the 1960s, it began conferring bachelor’s degrees and adopted the name Roger Williams College in 1967. In 1969, the college relocated to a new waterfront campus in Bristol, Rhode Island. In 1992, the institution became Roger Williams University, and in 1993 it established the state’s only law school. Over time, Roger Williams University has grown into a comprehensive private university offering undergraduate, graduate, and professional education.