private coeducational institution of higher learning in Durham, North Carolina, U.S., affiliated with but not controlled by the United Methodist Church. In 1839 the Union Institute Society was established in Randolph county, to the west of Durham, and in 1859 it was reorganized as Trinity College; the college moved to Durham in 1892. When a new charter was issued in 1924, the college became, under an endowment from the tobacco magnate James Buchanan Duke (Duke, James Buchanan), Duke University; it was named for his father, Washington Duke, who had initially funded Trinity College and had persuaded its board of trustees to move the school to Durham. Total enrollment is approximately 11,000.

Duke maintained separate campuses for undergraduate men and women, Trinity College and Woman's College, until they were merged in 1972 into Trinity College. Besides Trinity (liberal arts), the university includes schools of engineering, law, business, divinity, medicine, nursing, and environment, and the graduate school offers a variety of master's and doctoral degree programs. The university's medical centre is one of the most highly regarded institutions of its kind in the country. Notable campus facilities include Duke University Chapel, with its Gothic-style 210-foot (64-metre) tower; the Duke University Primate Center, focusing on prosimian research; the Duke University Museum of Art, containing displays of Greek and Roman antiquities, medieval sculpture, and American and European paintings; and Sarah Duke Gardens, which includes a large section devoted to East Asian flora. Prominent Duke alumni include politicians Richard M. Nixon (Nixon, Richard M.) and Elizabeth Hanford Dole, writers Anne Tyler (Tyler, Anne) and William Styron (Styron, William), and physicist Charles Hard Townes (Townes, Charles Hard).