The mission of Gardner-Webb University is to prepare graduates for leadership and service in their professional careers and in their personal lives. Rigorous and innovative degree programs, combined with distinctive hands-on learning opportunities, shape students into thinkers, doers, and world-changers. Forged within a supportive and diverse Christian community, our students emerge ready to impact their chosen professions, equipped with the skills to advance the frontiers of knowledge, and inspired to make a positive and lasting difference in the lives of others.
Location: 50 miles west of Charlotte and about an hour’s drive from both Asheville, N.C., and Greenville, S.C.; main campus of more than 225 acres is located in Boiling Springs, N.C., in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The GWU Charlotte Center, 8030 Arrowridge Blvd., is easily accessible from I-77 and I-485, and features 25,000 square feet of classroom, laboratory, technology and meeting space.
Students: 3,140 students, including the traditional day program, graduate studies and undergraduate online; 66% female, 34% male; 44 states, 36 foreign countries; 92 North Carolina counties; average class size is *13.
Faculty: 132 full time, 71% with Ph.D. or equivalent; and 109 adjuncts
Curriculum: A total of nine colleges and schools offer more than 80 undergraduate and graduate major fields of study. Gardner-Webb’s top five undergraduate majors are Exercise Science, Biology, Management, Psychology, and Nursing. The top enrolled schools and departments are Business, Nursing, Natural Sciences, and Exercise Science.
Athletics: NCAA Division I; member of the Big South Conference; compete in 11 men’s and 11 women’s sports. Student-athletes make up 41% of the student population for the traditional undergraduate program at Gardner-Webb.
Religious Affiliation: Christian (Baptist founded)
Endowment: $80 million
Living Alumni: 38,000+
History Highlights: Founded in 1905 as Boiling Springs High School; became Boiling Springs Junior College in 1928; renamed Gardner-Webb College in 1942 in honor of former North Carolina Governor O. Max Gardner and his wife, Fay Webb; became a university in 1993; hosted 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials-Cycling; reclassification to NCAA Division I athletics in 2000; added first doctoral program (Doctor of Ministry) in 2001; celebrated 100 years of educational service in 2005; completed largest-ever capital campaign of $46 million in 2013; opened the College of Health Sciences facility which houses the Hunt School of Nursing, the Department of Physician Assistant Studies and the Department of Exercise Science in 2015; received a gift from the Gardner Foundation to support undergraduate research by establishing the Fay Webb Gardner Master Mentorship Program in 2017; the first Tucker Scholar was named in 2020; construction of additional facilities and major enhancements (2021-2024): Indoor Baseball Facility, Dover Library renovations; Brinkley Amphitheater, Soccer Complex, and The Caf annex.
President: Dr. William M. Downs, July 1, 2019 – present
(Updated October 18, 2024)
*The average class size is based on traditional undergraduate general education core classes. Upper-level traditional undergraduate classes average 11 students; Degree Completion Program classes average 17 students and graduate courses average less than 10 students.
