Sacred Heart University Fairfield USA 2025

SHU has a history of putting students first. The University was founded in 1963 to serve the needs of aspiring college students in the Bridgeport area. Since then, SHU’s relentless focus on its mission has led it to become one of the fastest-growing and most forward-looking Catholic university in the country.

Sacred Heart University was founded in 1963 by the Most Reverend Walter W. Curtis, second bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport, to provide an institution of higher education that would serve the people of the diocese and region, regardless of sex, race, creed or religion. In October 1962, Bishop Curtis announced both the plan to open a college the following September, and its name, “Sacred Heart.” The choice of the name had a dual origin: it was the name of the bishop’s first pastorate in Bloomfield, NJ, and was a pledge from the bishop attesting to the value of such an institution.

Signs of the University’s growth and vibrancy are evident. Enrollment has risen from the original class of fewer than 200 undergraduate students to over 10,000 full-time and part-time undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students. Over the years, Sacred Heart has grown to become the second-largest independent Catholic university in New England and, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, one of the fastest-growing private doctoral institutions in the country.

The University has enhanced the undergraduate student experience in many notable ways. In 1990, it accepted, for the first time, students who wanted the residential experience. It now has 12 residential areas, with approximately 91% of first-year students and 51% of all undergraduates residing in University housing.

New degree programs and majors in relevant disciplines are regularly added to SHU’s curriculum, and the University now offers more than 90 undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and certificate programs on its campus in Fairfield, Conn., and satellite campus in Dingle, Ireland. The University consists of five colleges and three schools: College of Arts & Sciences, School of Communication, Media & the Arts, School of Social Work, School of Computer Science & Engineering, the AACSB-accredited Jack Welch College of Business & Technology, College of Health Professions, Davis & Henley College of Nursing and Isabelle Farrington College of Education & Human Development.