Is Hampshire College Closed? Nope. No Way. Not By a Long Shot.

Sure, we had a bumpy 2019, but Hampshire College was made for change, and we’ve been reinventing ourselves all along. We continue to do just that, evolving to meet the needs of today’s students, instilling essential skills to prepare them to thrive in the real world.  
 
Our mission has always been to radically reimagine the liberal arts and serve as the agent of change in higher education. In fact, every element that today’s Association of American Colleges & Universities recognizes as a high-impact educational practice was part of Hampshire’s method from the beginning.
 
And we aren’t slowing down — we’re doubling down.
 
Today, we’re more unconventional than we’ve ever been. Our approach to college education places students at the center of globally relevant questions in urgent need of solutions and empowers them to become agents of momentous change.
 
At Hampshire, students self-design their education, combining different fields to curate an original course of study. They participate in project-based learning to develop entrepreneurial skills and they collaborate by taking part in community-engaged learning. They learn multiple ways to identify a problem, ask the right questions, mobilize resources, and incorporate diverse points of view as they creatively propose solutions.
 
In short, they take their projects beyond the conceptual and make them real. We believe that to know is not enough — that knowledge without application benefits no one.
 
The world has long looked to Hampshire for what’s next, and we’ll continue — with confidence — to keep higher education on its toes.

Since 2019,

• We reorganized our already interdisciplinary academic schools around globally relevant challenges. Through our innovative Learning Collaboratives, we bring together disciplines to address the biggest issues facing society today.
• Hampshire was recognized for bringing a choice to an increasingly conformist higher education landscape, and for serving as “an incubator for education innovation” by the journalist Jon Marcus for The Hechinger Report.
• Total enrollment has grown by 60 percent. Entering class sizes increased 58 percent in 2021, 50 percent in 2022, and 24 percent in 2023.
• As of January 2025, the Change in the Making campaign has raised $47 million in direct operating support, including three $5 million gifts, the largest since the College’s founding.
• President Ed Wingenbach created the Justice, Equity, and Antiracism division. This commitment has been reflected in both hiring and admissions practices — 44 percent of new full-time faculty hires are BIPOC, BIPOC enrollment has increased by 9.4 percent, and the number of Pell Grant recipients is up by 15.4 percent.
• In October 2021, Hampshire College marked 50 years of innovation in higher education. This year, we’ll celebrate our 55th anniversary!

Our alumni, faculty, and students have been busy innovating too.

• While still a student, recent Hampshire grad Rupert Tawiah-Quashie 22S was awarded a Projects for Peace grant to implement “<Code_gh>,” a training program that aims to give high school students in Accra, Ghana, an opportunity to excel within the tech space.
• Assistant Professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies Noah Romero published a book on decolonializing education and received a $40,000 grant to implement related programs.
• Graduate Daniel Colten Schmidt 18F turned their attention to environmental justice through urban farming and affordable housing
• Hampshire’s first Semester Unbound brought together faculty, staff, and students to create the campus’s new Climate Action Plan.
• Hampshire alum Alex Rivera 91F was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. Rivera was one of 25 chosen by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for their “outstanding talent and exceptional creativity.”
• And so much more.

Curious to learn what else is going on? You should be. Come visit, and see for yourself why Hampshire College is the most innovative and exciting place in higher education.