University of Maryland Eastern Shore
The University of Maryland Eastern Shore offers an impressive array of accredited academic programs blending a time-honored curriculum with instruction in such contemporary fields as allied health, construction management technology, criminal justice, hospitality/tourism and professional golf management.
Fifteen miles from the Chesapeake Bay and 25 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, UMES is home to a multi-cultural student body drawn from a broad spectrum of backgrounds and perspectives. Its focus as an 1890 land-grant institution is on teaching, research and outreach, emphasizing stewardship of the environment, land and sea.
UMES was founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church as a prep school on Sept. 13, 1886 with nine students and three teachers. Today, it has evolved into a vibrant public research university with 200 full-time faculty members and nearly 4,400 students from three dozen nations. Its 1,138-acre footprint on the lower Eastern Shore of Maryland includes a 385-acre farm adjoining a tidal creek that is used for agriculture research.
UMES’ 15th leader is Dr. Juliette B. Bell, a biochemistry educator-researcher who came to Princess Anne. Md. in July 2012 from Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, where she was chief academic officer.
The university offers 38 undergraduate, 16 master’s and eight doctoral programs, including its newest, a Master of Science in Cybersecurity Engineering Technology. Together, they represent UMES’ commitment to core values emphasizing arts and sciences form a foundation for instruction in agriculture, business, computer science, criminal justice, educator training and health care professions. Twenty-eight academic units boast peer-review accreditation.
U.S. News & World Report’s most recent annual survey of the nation’s Best Black Colleges rated UMES 30th.
Among UMES’ signature programs are construction management technology, hospitality-tourism management, engineering and aviation science. University researchers, in fact, are engaged in identifying effective domestic uses for unmanned aircraft – more commonly known as drones – with a focus on environmental monitoring and helping farmers with precision agriculture.
In October 2014, the university and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration co-hosted some 500 participants at a national conference where the focus was innovative education and research initiatives universities are employing to train scientists, engineers, mathematicians and technology professionals drawn from underrepresented populations.
UMES is proud to be the nation’s lone historically black institution authorized by the PGA of America to offer a bachelor’s degree where graduates not only play golf at a highly skilled level but are prepared for a broad spectrum of careers within the golf industry.
Graduate offerings include master’s degrees in applied computer science, criminology and criminal justice, food and agricultural sciences, marine-estuarine-environmental sciences, pharmaceutical sciences, quantitative fisheries and resource economics, rehabilitation counseling and toxicology.
Doctorates are awarded in food science and technology, marine-estuarine-environmental sciences, organizational and educational leadership, toxicology, pharmacy and physical therapy. UMES’ physical therapy program was one of just 25 institutions where every graduate passed a national certification exam on the first try this past fall.
As a charter member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, UMES has accumulated 24 league championships, including two – men’s cross-country and women’s bowling – earned during the 2014-15 academic year. With seven Division 1 national championships, UMES has the most titles of any historically black institution competing at that level.
MEAC has been recognized UMES six consecutive years for having the league's best graduation success rate (GSR). Eighty-eight percent of student athletes who competed between 2004 and 2007 earned degrees.
The online site, College Court Report, named UMES’ mascot, Harry the Hawk, as Division 1 college basketball’s top mascot in an Internet bracket polling competition a year ago.
Accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, UMES’ 14:1 student-faculty ratio, $20 million in annual funded research, tradition of inclusiveness and membership in the University System of Maryland make it a strong engine of growth and economic development.
