Harvard University

Harvard University is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States.哈佛大学（Harvard University）是一所位于美国马萨诸塞州剑桥市的私立研究型大学，也是美国历史最悠久的高等学府。

Founded in 1636 by the colonial legislature of Massachusetts and named for the minister John Harvard, it is organised into ten faculties together with the Radcliffe Institute and ranks fifth in the 2027 QS World University Rankings.学校由马萨诸塞殖民地立法机构于 1636 年设立，因牧师约翰·哈佛的捐赠而得名，现设十所学院与拉德克利夫高等研究院，在 2027 年 QS 世界大学排名中位列全球第五。

In the autumn of 2024 it enrolled 21,189 students, 7,038 of them undergraduates and 14,151 postgraduate, and its endowment of 55.7 billion dollars was the largest of any university in the world.2024 年秋季学校在校学生 21189 人，其中本科生 7038 人、研究生 14151 人，其 557 亿美元的捐赠基金规模为全球各大学之最。

History

• Harvard was established by vote of the Massachusetts colonial legislature in 1636, making it the first institution of higher education in what became the United States, and was first called New College.哈佛于 1636 年由马萨诸塞殖民地立法机构表决设立，是后来成为美国的这片土地上第一所高等学府，最初名为新学院。

• It was renamed Harvard College on 13 March 1639 in gratitude to John Harvard, a minister and Cambridge graduate, who left it some four hundred books and 779 pounds, nearly half his estate.1639 年 3 月 13 日，学校为答谢牧师、剑桥毕业生约翰·哈佛的捐赠而改称哈佛学院，他留下了四百余册图书与 779 英镑，几乎相当于其一半家产。

• It received its corporate charter in 1650 and has the oldest governing board in North America.学校于 1650 年取得法人特许状，拥有北美历史最悠久的校董机构。

• Early Harvard followed the model of English universities and was chiefly concerned with training Congregational and Unitarian ministers, though it was never formally tied to a religious denomination.早期的哈佛仿效英国大学模式，主要培养公理会与一位论派神职人员，不过它从未与任何教派正式挂钩。

• Its presidents were clergymen until 1708, when the first non-Puritan head took office, loosening the hold of Puritan thinking on the college.学校的校长一直是神职人员，直到 1708 年第一位非清教徒校长上任，才松动了清教徒思想对学院的支配。

• In 1805 the Unitarian Henry Ware took charge of the college, a step that helped secularise American higher education and led critics to call Harvard the Vatican of Unitarianism.1805 年，一位论派的亨利·威尔主持学院，此举推动了美国高等教育的世俗化，也使批评者把哈佛称作一位论派的梵蒂冈。

• The Swiss scientist Louis Agassiz visited Harvard in 1846 and argued that the structure and transformation of living things rest on archetypes, a view that influenced the curriculum.瑞士科学家路易斯·阿加西于 1846 年到访哈佛，主张生物的结构与变化以原型为基础，这一观点影响了课程设置。

• Charles William Eliot, president from 1869 to 1909, removed compulsory Christian instruction, combined Harvard's schools into a research university and introduced small classes and entrance examinations.1869 至 1909 年任校长的查尔斯·艾略特取消了强制性的基督教课程，把哈佛各学院整合为研究型大学，并引入小班授课与入学考试。

• Eliot's reforms influenced secondary and higher education across the United States, and Harvard's elective system allowed students to choose much of their own course of study.艾略特的改革影响了全美中等与高等教育；哈佛的选课制允许学生自行选择大部分课程。

• Harvard was one of the twelve founding members of the Association of American Universities in 1900.哈佛是 1900 年美国大学协会的十二个创始成员之一。

• Radcliffe College, founded in 1879 as a coordinate college for women, became one of the best-known women's colleges in the United States and was long affiliated with Harvard.1879 年创办的拉德克利夫学院是为女性设立的姊妹学院，后来成为美国最知名的女子学院之一，并长期与哈佛保持附属关系。

• James Bryant Conant, president from 1933, re-established creative scholarships to attract talent, arguing that higher education should serve the able rather than the wealthy.1933 年上任的校长詹姆斯·布赖恩特·科南特重建创意奖学金制度以吸引人才，主张高等教育应面向有才能者而非富家子弟。

• At Conant's request the faculty produced a report in 1945 on the aims of secondary and higher education that became the most influential American statement on general education in the century.应科南特的要求，教师团队于 1945 年提出一份关于中等与高等教育目的的报告，成为该世纪美国关于通识教育最具影响力的文本。

• Between 1945 and 1960 admission policies changed to bring in students from a wider range of backgrounds rather than mainly from elite schools, though Black and Asian students remained very few.1945 至 1960 年间，招生政策有所调整，学生来源不再局限于贵族学校，但黑人及亚裔学生仍只占极少数。

• Women made up only about one student in five for much of the twentieth century, and their numbers rose steadily after the 1977 merger with Radcliffe.二十世纪大部分时间里，女性约占学生总数的五分之一，1977 年与拉德克利夫合并后其人数持续上升。

• Radcliffe formally became the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study in 1999, and its dean, Drew Gilpin Faust, became Harvard's first woman president in 2007.拉德克利夫于 1999 年正式改为拉德克利夫高等研究院，其院长德鲁·吉尔平·福斯特于 2007 年成为哈佛三百多年历史上第一位女校长。

• The university also has extensive holdings outside Cambridge, including the Harvard Forest at Petersham, Dumbarton Oaks in Washington and a centre in Shanghai.学校在剑桥之外还拥有大量设施，包括彼得舍姆的哈佛森林、华盛顿的敦巴顿橡树园以及在上海的一处中心。

• In 2014 the Chan family of Hong Kong gave 350 million dollars to the school of public health, which was renamed the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.2014 年，香港陈氏家族向公共卫生学院捐赠 3.5 亿美元，该院随后更名为哈佛陈曾熙公共卫生学院。

• In 2015 the hedge fund manager John Paulson gave 400 million dollars to the school of engineering and applied sciences, then the largest gift in Harvard's history, and it was renamed for him.2015 年，对冲基金经理约翰·保尔森向工程与应用科学学院捐赠 4 亿美元，为当时哈佛历史上最大一笔捐赠，该院随后以他命名。

• In 2025 a dispute with the federal government led to the freezing of more than 2 billion dollars in research funding and an attempt to bar international students, both of which federal courts blocked.2025 年，学校与联邦政府发生争执，逾 20 亿美元科研经费被冻结，招收国际学生一度被禁止，相关措施均被联邦法院阻止。

• The first classes were held in 1638 under Nathaniel Eaton as schoolmaster, and his dismissal a year later left the young college without a head for a time.学校于 1638 年在校长伊顿主持下首次开课，一年后伊顿被解职，这所年轻的学院一度无人主持。

Academics

• Harvard has ten faculties together with the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and its arts and sciences faculty is divided into Harvard College, the graduate school, the engineering school and the extension school.哈佛设十所学院以及拉德克利夫高等研究院，其文理学院又分为哈佛学院、文理研究生院、工程与应用科学学院与进修学院。

• The professional schools are medicine, dental medicine, public health, law, business, design, divinity, education and the John F. Kennedy School of Government.专业学院包括医学院、牙医学院、公共卫生学院、法学院、商学院、设计学院、神学院、教育学院与约翰·肯尼迪政府学院。

• Undergraduate education is concentrated in the arts and sciences, while graduate and professional programmes are broader in range.本科教育集中在文理学科，研究生与专业教育的范围则更为广泛。

• It employs about 2,400 faculty members, and affiliated teaching hospitals account for more than 10,400 further academic appointments.学校约有 2400 名教师，其附属教学医院另有超过 10400 个学术岗位。

• As of the autumn of 2024 it had 21,189 students, of whom 7,038 were undergraduates and 14,151 were postgraduates.截至 2024 年秋季，学校有学生 21189 人，其中本科生 7038 人、研究生 14151 人。

• Its endowment reached 55.7 billion dollars in 2025, the largest of any university, and its operating budget was 6.7 billion dollars in the fiscal year ending 30 June 2025.2025 年其捐赠基金达到 557 亿美元，为全球各大学之最；截至 2025 年 6 月 30 日的财年运营预算为 67 亿美元。

• Harvard's library system is the oldest in the United States and the largest private and academic library system in the world, holding more than sixteen million volumes.哈佛图书馆系统是美国历史最悠久的图书馆系统，也是全球规模最大的私立与高校图书馆系统，馆藏逾 1600 万册。

• Widener Library stands at the centre of the system, and Houghton Library holds the university's rare books and manuscripts.怀德纳图书馆位于该体系的核心，霍顿图书馆则收藏学校的珍本与手稿。

• Fair Harvard admission is among the most competitive in the United States, and from 2007 the university adopted financial aid policies exempting families below certain incomes from tuition.哈佛的录取竞争在全美最为激烈之列；自 2007 年起，学校实行助学金政策，年收入低于一定水平的家庭可免除学费。

• Harvard runs joint centres with the neighbouring Massachusetts Institute of Technology, including the Harvard-MIT programme in health sciences and technology and the Broad Institute.哈佛与邻近的麻省理工学院合办多个研究中心，包括哈佛—麻省理工健康科学技术项目与博德研究所。

• The two institutions also developed the online learning platform edX together, and HarvardX publishes Harvard courses on it.两校还共同开发了在线学习平台 edX，哈佛的课程以 HarvardX 之名在其上发布。

• As of October 2020, 161 Nobel laureates, eighteen Fields medallists and fourteen Turing Award winners had studied or worked at Harvard.截至 2020 年 10 月，共有 161 位诺贝尔奖得主、18 位菲尔兹奖得主与 14 位图灵奖得主曾在哈佛学习或工作。

• Its research strengths span medicine and the life sciences, economics, mathematics, the physical sciences, law and public policy.其研究强项涵盖医学与生命科学、经济学、数学、物理科学、法律与公共政策。

• Harvard's sustainability programme began in 2000 with a fund of 12 million dollars and a dedicated office, and it is one of 27 American universities rated A by the sustainable endowment institute.哈佛的可持续发展项目始于 2000 年，设有 1200 万美元基金与专门机构，是全美 27 所获可持续发展基金机构评为 A 级的大学之一。

• The university is a member of the Association of American Universities and of the Ivy League, and it is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education.学校是美国大学协会与常春藤联盟的成员，并通过新英格兰高等教育委员会认证。

• The Harvard Crimson is the daily student newspaper, and the university press, founded in 1913, is one of the oldest academic publishers in the United States.《哈佛深红报》是学生自办的日报；创建于 1913 年的哈佛大学出版社是美国历史最悠久的学术出版机构之一。

• Radcliffe's former campus is now the home of the Radcliffe Institute, and the university's graduate schools are clustered around it.拉德克利夫原校址现为拉德克利夫高等研究院所在地，学校各研究生院也多聚集其周围。

• Harvard's endowment fell sharply in the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, which delayed the planned science complex in Allston and a research building budgeted at 1.2 billion dollars.在 2008 至 2009 年的金融危机中，哈佛捐赠基金大幅缩水，原定在奥尔斯顿建设的科研综合体与预算 12 亿美元的研究大楼因此推迟。

Campus

• The main campus of about 85 hectares is centred on Harvard Yard in Cambridge, some 5.5 kilometres north-west of downtown Boston.约 85 公顷的主校区以剑桥市的哈佛园为中心，距波士顿市中心西北约 5.5 公里。

• Harvard Yard contains the central administration, the main library and buildings such as University Hall, Memorial Church and the first-year dormitories.哈佛园内有中央行政机构、总图书馆，以及大学学堂、纪念教堂与新生宿舍等建筑。

• Massachusetts Hall, built in 1720, is the oldest surviving building on the campus and one of the oldest academic buildings in the United States.建于 1720 年的马萨诸塞堂是校园中现存最古老的建筑，也是美国历史最悠久的学术建筑之一。

• Undergraduates live in twelve houses, nine of them south of the Yard near the Charles River and the rest on its north-western side.本科生住在十二所住宿学院中，其中九所在哈佛园以南、靠近查尔斯河，其余则位于园区的西北侧。

• The house system was largely paid for by the Yale philanthropist Edward Harkness, and each house has its own dining hall, library and recreational facilities.住宿学院制主要由耶鲁慈善家爱德华·哈克尼斯捐资建立，每所学院都配有餐厅、图书馆与娱乐设施。

• The business school and most athletic facilities, including Harvard Stadium, occupy about 145 hectares in Allston, west of the main campus, linked by the John W. Weeks footbridge across the Charles.商学院与包括哈佛体育场在内的大部分体育设施位于主校区以西的奥尔斯顿，占地约 145 公顷，经横跨查尔斯河的约翰·威克斯步行桥相连。

• The medical, dental and public health schools occupy about nine hectares in the Longwood Medical Area, some five kilometres south-west of the main campus.医学院、牙医学院与公共卫生学院位于长木医学区，占地约九公顷，距主校区西南约五公里。

• Harvard has bought large tracts of land in Allston and now owns more there than in Cambridge, with plans for a science complex and further student housing.哈佛在奥尔斯顿购入大片土地，如今在该地拥有的面积已超过剑桥，并规划建设科研综合体与更多学生宿舍。

• Memorial Hall, completed in 1878, commemorates Harvard's Civil War dead and contains Annenberg Hall and Sanders Theatre.1878 年落成的纪念堂用以纪念哈佛在内战中阵亡的成员，内有安嫩伯格餐厅与桑德斯剧场。

• The university's 2000 sustainability programme coordinates energy and water saving across the campus, which is among the most successful such schemes in American higher education.学校 2000 年启动的可持续发展项目统筹全校的节能与节水工作，是美国高等教育中最成功的此类计划之一。

• The statue of John Harvard in Harvard Yard, sculpted by Daniel Chester French and unveiled in 1884, is one of the most photographed monuments in the United States.哈佛园内的约翰·哈佛雕像由丹尼尔·切斯特·弗伦奇雕刻、1884 年揭幕，是美国被拍摄最多的纪念像之一。

Reputation

• Harvard ranks fifth in the 2027 QS World University Rankings, sixth in the 2027 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, first in the 2026 Academic Ranking of World Universities and first in the 2026-2027 U.S. News Best Global Universities.哈佛在 2027 年 QS 世界大学排名中位列全球第五，2027 年泰晤士高等教育世界大学排名第六，2026 年软科世界大学学术排名第一，2026 至 2027 年度 US News 全球最佳大学排名第一。^[1]

• It is rated among the most prestigious universities in the world for its history, academic influence and wealth, and its endowment income is the largest of any educational institution.凭借历史、学术影响力与财力，学校被评为世界上最负盛名的学府之一，其捐赠收益规模居全球教育机构之首。

• Eight presidents of the United States studied at Harvard, including John Adams, both Roosevelts, John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama.有八位美国总统曾在哈佛求学，其中包括约翰·亚当斯、两位罗斯福、约翰·肯尼迪与贝拉克·奥巴马。

• Harvard has produced 62 billionaire entrepreneurs and 335 Rhodes Scholars, more of each than any other American university.哈佛培养出 62 位亿万富翁企业家与 335 位罗德学者，两项人数均为全美各大学之最。

• Ivanka Trump, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates are among its best-known students, the last two having left without completing their degrees.伊万卡·特朗普、马克·扎克伯格与比尔·盖茨是其最知名的学生之一，后两位均未完成学业即离校。

• Its faculty and graduates have won Nobel Prizes across medicine, chemistry, physics and economics, and fourteen Turing Award winners are associated with the university.其教师与毕业生在医学、化学、物理学与经济学领域获得多项诺贝尔奖，另有 14 位图灵奖得主与学校相关。

• Harvard is one of the twelve founding members of the Association of American Universities and belongs to the Ivy League.哈佛是美国大学协会十二个创始成员之一，并属于常春藤联盟。

• Its law school and business school are among the most selective professional schools in the world.其法学院与商学院是世界上最难进入的专业学院之一。

• The university's medical and public health schools, based in the Longwood Medical Area, are among the largest biomedical research complexes in the United States.位于长木医学区的医学院与公共卫生学院，是全美规模最大的生物医学研究集群之一。

• Harvard has headed the Academic Ranking of World Universities in many editions and leads the U.S. News global table, and its endowment has been the largest of any university for years.哈佛在多个版本的软科世界大学学术排名中位居首位，并领跑 US News 全球榜单；其捐赠基金规模多年来一直是各大学之最。

Student life

• Harvard's motto is Veritas, meaning truth, and it appears on the university's seal along with the word Christo et Ecclesiae added in the seventeenth century.哈佛的校训是「真理」，它出现在校印之上，十七世纪时校印上还曾加有「为基督与教会」字样。

• The university has 42 varsity teams, competing in NCAA Division I and in the Ivy League.学校有 42 支校级运动队，参加美国大学体育协会甲级联赛与常春藤联盟赛事。

• Harvard and Yale contest The Game, their annual football match, which dates from 1875 and is one of the oldest fixtures in American college sport.哈佛与耶鲁每年进行名为「大赛」的橄榄球赛，该赛事始于 1875 年，是美国大学体育中历史最悠久的对抗之一。

• Housing is central to undergraduate life, and each of the twelve houses has its own dining hall, tutors and intramural teams.住宿生活是本科教育的核心，十二所住宿学院各自拥有餐厅、导师与院内运动队。

• The Harvard Crimson has been published since 1873 and is one of the few daily student newspapers in the United States.《哈佛深红报》自 1873 年起出版，是美国为数不多的学生自办日报之一。

• Student organisations include the Harvard Institute of Politics, the debating union and a very large number of musical and theatrical groups.学生组织包括哈佛政治研究所、辩论会以及数量众多的音乐与戏剧团体。

• Freshmen live in Harvard Yard and in the yards around it before moving into the houses for their remaining three years.一年级学生住在哈佛园及其周边的院落中，其后三年则迁入住宿学院。

• Sports facilities are concentrated at Allston, where the stadium, the boathouse and the majority of playing fields are located.体育设施集中在奥尔斯顿，体育场、船屋与大部分运动场地都在那里。

• The university's location across the Charles River from Boston gives students access to the cultural institutions of both cities.学校与波士顿隔查尔斯河相望，学生可以接触到这两座城市的文化机构。

Notable people

• John Harvard, a minister and graduate of the University of Cambridge, left the college books and money in his will and gave it his name.牧师、剑桥大学毕业生约翰·哈佛在遗嘱中把图书与款项留给学院，学校也因此以他命名。

• Charles William Eliot, president from 1869 to 1909, turned a provincial college into a research university and reshaped American education.1869 至 1909 年任校长的查尔斯·艾略特把一所地方性学院改造为研究型大学，并重塑了美国教育。

• James Bryant Conant, president from 1933 to 1953, promoted merit-based admission and commissioned the 1945 report on general education.1933 至 1953 年任校长的詹姆斯·科南特推动以才择优的招生，并促成 1945 年那份通识教育报告。

• Drew Gilpin Faust, a historian, became the first woman president of Harvard in 2007.历史学家德鲁·吉尔平·福斯特于 2007 年成为哈佛首位女校长。

• Among the statesmen educated at Harvard are John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy.在哈佛受教育的政治家包括约翰·亚当斯、约翰·昆西·亚当斯、西奥多·罗斯福、富兰克林·罗斯福与约翰·肯尼迪。

• Barack Obama took his law degree at Harvard, where he was the first Black president of the Harvard Law Review.贝拉克·奥巴马在哈佛取得法学学位，并成为《哈佛法律评论》首位非裔主编。

• Bill Gates, who left Harvard in 1975 to found Microsoft, and Mark Zuckerberg, who left in 2005 to build Facebook, both studied there.1975 年离校创办微软的比尔·盖茨与 2005 年离校创办脸书的马克·扎克伯格都曾在哈佛就读。

• Harvard faculty have included the economists Paul Samuelson and Amartya Sen and the physicist Sheldon Glashow.哈佛教师中包括经济学家保罗·萨缪尔森与阿马蒂亚·森，以及物理学家谢尔登·格拉肖。

• The poets and writers associated with Harvard include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson and T. S. Eliot.与哈佛相关的诗人与作家包括拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生、亨利·戴维·梭罗、艾米莉·狄金森与 T. S. 艾略特。

• Harvard-trained physicians and scientists have led major advances in medicine, and its hospitals make up one of the largest clinical research networks in the world.在哈佛受训的医生与科学家推动了医学的重大进展，其附属医院构成了世界上规模最大的临床研究网络之一。