Harvard University was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 28 October 1636 by a vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Harvard describes it as the first college in the American colonies. Its governance has four parts: the President, the deans and officers, the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers.
Its schools include Harvard College, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Business, Law, Medical, Divinity, Design, Education, Dental Medicine, Kennedy and T.H. Chan Public Health schools, the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the Radcliffe Institute. The Harvard Fact Book records 24,317 degree students in fall 2025, 6,675 of them in Harvard College. Alan M. Garber is the 31st President.