University of New Hampshire at Manchester

An October 2015 photograph of the Pandora Mill, main building of the University of New Hampshire campus in Manchester, New Hampshire The north end of the Amoskeag Millyard, on the Merrimack River Downtown Manchester , looking south along Elm Street A view of the ice hockey surface at SNHU Arena The main atrium of the Currier Museum of Art The UNHM dorms are located just off Elm Street, minutes from both the campus and downtown Manchester. A typical dorm room at the University of New Hampshire in Manchester A view of the STEM Discovery Lab at the University of New Hampshire in Manchester Merrimack Valley College began as a branch of the University of New Hampshire (UNH) in 1967. It became an independent institution within the University System of New Hampshire in 1977, remaining so until 1985 when it merged back into UNH as the University of New Hampshire at Manchester. The school initially offered continuing education programs, but these were transitioned to the separate School for Continuing Studies in 1978. [ 3 ] The college has been located in Manchester's historic Amoskeag Millyard since 2001, originally at a site on Commercial Street and, since 2015, at the Pandora Mills complex. [ 4 ] That same year, Manchester was rated one of the "Five Coolest College Towns in New England" by Campus News . [ 5 ] Other colleges in the area include Southern New Hampshire University , Saint Anselm College , Manchester Community College , and formerly the New Hampshire Institute of Art . The School for Continuing Studies underwent several name changes since taking over UNH Manchester's continuing education programs in 1978. In 2005, after a failed effort to merge the school (then called the College for Lifelong Learning) into Plymouth State University , it was reorganized as Granite State College . [ 6 ] Granite State College had several campuses around the state, but closed most of them as students shifted to online learning.

[ 7 ] Finally, in 2022, Granite State College merged into the University of New Hampshire as the online component of the UNH College of Professional Studies, while UNH Manchester became the college's on-campus component. [ 2 ]

The University of New Hampshire's urban campus provides associate , bachelor's , and master's degrees, with a special emphasis on programs that address urban issues and integrate undergraduate and graduate study with Manchester's thriving professional and business communities. [ 8 ] [ 9 ] In addition to its wide range of academic and non-academic community outreach programs, the campus has a collaborative agreement with the neighboring New Hampshire Institute of Art that allows students interested in the fine arts to enroll in the Institute's Bachelor of Fine Arts program. The campus also has an articulation agreement with the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences that allows students to dual enroll in the pre-pharmacy or physician assistant programs offered at the latter's Manchester location. UNHM has also established a partnership with the Institute at Palazzo Rucellai in Florence, Italy , which allows students in the former's Politics and Society program to study abroad. UNHM also provides valuable student resources, such as workshops and tutoring, through its Center for Academic Enrichment. The student-faculty ratio at the university's urban campus is 13:1, and 97% of classes have fewer than 30 students. [ 10 ] While the College has always attracted a significant cohort of non-traditional students, in recent years the demographics of the student body in Manchester have shifted considerably. In 2006, 59% of students were between the ages of 17 and 23, with 41% 24 or older; by 2013, only 34% of students were 24 or older, with 66% of the student body between the ages of 17 and 23. [ 11 ] STEM emphasis Critical to the academic mission of the University of New Hampshire's campus in Manchester is emphasizing student learning in and out of the classroom, particularly in the STEM fields.

A significant percentage of the 1,000 students studying at the urban campus secure for-credit internships in the Manchester business community, often in STEM-oriented companies, and the college in turn offers use of the UNH STEM Discovery Lab to members of the local community, particularly K-12 students and their teachers. UNHM Community Outreach Scholarship further serves the Manchester community by maintaining a massive data archive relating to the City of Manchester and its public policy initiatives. This archive is an official part of the UNH Dimond Library Digital Collections Initiative.