This our moment.
This is our vision.
We will mobilize research, education, and patient care to establish WashU and St. Louis as a global hub for transformative solutions to the deepest societal challenges.
Our mission
The mission of Washington University in St. Louis is to act in service of truth through the formation of leaders, the discovery of knowledge, and the treatment of patients for the betterment of our region, our nation, and our world.
At WashU, we generate, disseminate, and apply knowledge. We foster freedom of inquiry and expression of ideas in our research, teaching, and learning. We aim to create an environment that encourages and supports wide-ranging exploration at the frontier of discovery by embracing diverse perspectives from individuals of all identities and backgrounds. We promote higher education and rigorous research as a fundamental component of an open, vibrant society. We strive to enhance the lives and livelihoods not only of our students, patients, and employees but also of the people of the greater St. Louis community and beyond. We do so by addressing scientific, social, economic, medical, and other challenges in the local, national, and international realms.
Our goals are:
- To foster excellence and creativity in our teaching, research, scholarship, patient care, and service
- To welcome students, faculty, and staff from all backgrounds to create an inclusive, equitable community that is nurturing and intellectually rigorous
- To cultivate in students habits of lifelong learning and critical and ethical thinking, thereby enabling them to be productive members and leaders of a global society
- To contribute positively to our home community of St. Louis, and to effect meaningful, constructive change in our world
To this end, we intend:
- To hold ourselves to the highest standards of excellence
- To educate aspiring leaders of great ability from diverse backgrounds
- To encourage faculty, staff, and students to be innovative, bold, independent, critical thinkers
- To build an inclusive, equitable, respectful, ethically principled environment for living, teaching, learning, and working for present and future generations
- To focus on meaningful and measurable outcomes for all of our endeavors