George Mason University

▪ university, Fairfax, Virginia, United States

      public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Fairfax, Virginia, U.S. It consists of 12 colleges and schools offering a variety of undergraduate and graduate degrees. Several of its graduate programs have been recognized nationally for excellence and distinction including the Center for Global Education, the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, and the Institute for Computational Sciences and Informatics. The university also includes the Prince William Institute (1997) in Prince William county and a campus in Arlington (1979), where the School of Law is located. About 100 degree programs at the undergraduate, master's, doctoral, and professional levels are offered. Total enrollment is about 22,000.

      George Mason University was founded in 1957 as a branch campus of the University of Virginia (Virginia, University of). It is named for statesman and patriot George Mason (Mason, George). The school began offering a two-year program in 1966 and became an independent four-year institution in 1972. Economist James M. Buchanan (Buchanan, James M.) was on the George Mason faculty when he won the Nobel Prize for Economic Science in 1986.

* * *