Westminster College (Missouri)

Westminster College is a private institution for undergraduates in central Missouri linked to the Presbyterian Church (USA). It is based in the small city of Fulton, 25 miles from Jefferson City and Columbia, and 110 miles west of Saint Louis, the state’s second largest city.

Established in 1851, Westminster was formerly known as Fulton College.

There are more than 80 subjects for students to choose from, including education, business and biological & biomedical studies, the three most popular degree programmes. A small number of part-time students attend the university. It has an 87-acre residential campus which houses a high proportion of the college's students.

Winston Churchill delivered his famous 1946 speech warning of the “iron curtain [that had] descended across the continent”, a moment sometimes seen by historians as marking the beginning of the Cold War, at Westminster's campus. In 1992, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, gave a speech which many believe represented the end of the Cold War. Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Lech Walesa are among the other world leaders to have spoken on campus.

Influential Presbyterian theologian Benjamin M. Palmer, Florida Democratic congressman Courtney W. Campbell, bestselling author W. Bruce Cameron, and hall-of-fame basketball coach Henry Iba are among Westminster’s many alumni.