Since it was founded in 1972, George Mason University has grown into a major educational force and earned a reputation as an innovative, entrepreneurial institution. Just minutes from Washington, D.C., George Mason has a growing and diverse student body and an exceptional faculty of enterprising scholars. At the center of the world’s political, information, and communications networks, George Mason is the university needed by a region and a world driven by new social, economic, and technological realities.

George Mason’s development has been shaped in response to the educational needs of its cosmopolitan constituency. The university has gained national distinction in a range of academic fields, including public policy, information technology, economics, the fine and performing arts, law, conflict resolution, and, most recently, the biosciences.

Strong alliances with business, the community, and government benefit George Mason’s students and the larger society. Enrollment is over 30,000, with students studying in 168 degree programs at the undergraduate, master’s, doctoral, and professional levels.

George Mason is a distributed university with three campuses in Fairfax, Arlington, and Prince William counties. In fall 2005, George Mason opened a location in Loudoun County, and an international campus in the United Arab Emirates. Each campus has a distinctive academic focus that plays a critical role in the economy of its region. At each campus, students and faculty have access to all the university’s resources, while duplication of programs and support services is minimized through the use of technology. The university also offers programs at the Center for Innovative Technology’s Herndon Training Center and on the Internet.