private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S. The university offers a variety of undergraduate programs, as well as graduate degree programs in business, liberal arts, and sciences. It operates study-abroad programs in Asia, Europe, and Africa, including the Clark European Center in Luxembourg; other affiliated programs include study at the Bermuda Biological Station and field studies in Africa, Australia, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Noteworthy facilities on campus include the Heinz Werner Institute for Developmental Analysis, Jacob Hiatt Center for Urban Education, and the George F. and Sybil H. Fuller Foundation Center for Music. Among its research centres, the George Perkins Marsh Institute is devoted to interdisciplinary study of the relationship between humanity and the changing environment. The Center for Holocaust Studies, which initiated a doctoral degree program in 1998, maintains an extensive collection of books and materials.

In 1887 Clark University was established by Jonas Gilman Clark, a Worcester native and successful merchant, and G. Stanley Hall (Hall, G. Stanley), a psychologist and first president of the university. Initially a graduate institution, it began undergraduate instruction in 1902. Robert H. Goddard (Goddard, Robert Hutchings), one of the fathers of rocket science, received his doctorate from Clark University and taught there, as did the physicist Albert A. Michelson (Michelson, A.A.). Total enrollment is approximately 2,600.