Academics

Every undergraduate student in every school of study here at Duquesne takes a series of courses that emphasize intellectual and moral development through the study of the liberal arts. In addition to building skills for later success, our Bridges curriculum allows you to study a wide variety of subjects and graduate with the richest possible academic experience.

Learn From the Best

While studying at Duquesne, you'll enjoy a low, 13:1 student-to-faculty ratio, and in small classes, you get the personal attention needed to achieve your best. You’ll learn alongside our faculty, genuine teacher-scholars, making important contributions in their fields of expertise. The curiosity and tenacity that drive their research and creativity make their classrooms exciting places to be. Your professors are committed to providing an exceptional learning experience, excited about your future and enthusiastic about helping you realize your boldest goals. They are top-notch teachers, but they also value and participate in scholarship and research.

 In fact, many students—both graduate and undergraduate—have the chance to assist their professors with research projects with grants from a few-thousand dollars to more than a half-million dollars that are changing the world around us. The Carnegie Foundation classified Duquesne as one of only seven Catholic universities in the nation with a "research university with high research activity" distinction, an R2 institution. 

A few examples of exemplary faculty research at Duquesne:

• Dr. Patrick Juola, the Joseph A. Lauritis, C.S.Sp., Endowed Chair in Teaching and Technology, was selected as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar for 2024-2025 academic year and will travel to Budapest, Hungary, to work in the laboratory of Dr. Gabór Palkó at Eötvös Loránd University working to improve natural language processing in Hungarian.

• Dr. Christopher Harris, clinical assistant professor of educational psychology in the School of Education, received the Racial Justice Equity Grant from the Center for Community-Engaged Teaching and Research for his project “Banned Brooks, Banned Voices: An In-Depth Research Paper on Book Banning and its Consequences for Black and Brown Teachers in America.”

• Dr. Alison Colbert, professor in the School of Nursing, has been appointed a strategic advisor to the director of the National Institute of Nursing Research, which leads nursing research to solve pressing health challenges and inform practice and policy-optimizing health and advancing health equity into the future. 

• Dr. Thomas Carsecka, School of Music, has received funding from the McSwigan Family Foundation Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation to support the project City Music Center: Emerging Musicians Program and FULL SPECTRUM: Exploring the Role of Music in the Autism Community.

• Dr. Devika S. Manickam, associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences in Duquesne’s School of Pharmacy recently received the Young Investigator Award in Bioengineering from the Controlled Release Society (CRS), the major international society for drug delivery research. Dr. Manickam received a new U.S. Department of Defense grant to develop a novel therapy for ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases using mitochondria to help restore damaged cells.

Prepare for anything

Your academic preparation will provide you an education that's exactly what you need, and more than you could ever have imagined. Students tell us again and again that they leave Duquesne prepared for anything, and the outcomes they achieve speak for themselves. You can expect to feel ready for your next steps after your time at the University.