Dallas Baptist University

Dallas, United States of America
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Dallas Baptist University (DBU), formerly known as Dallas Baptist College, is a Christian liberal arts university located in Dallas, Texas.

DBU began as Decatur Baptist College in Decatur, Texas, in 1898. Originally a two-year college, it served as a feeder to the larger baptist institution, Baylor University in Waco, Texas. In 1965, DBU moved from Decatur to its present location in southwest Dallas as a result of the local Dallas Baptist Association's desire for a local baptist college.

Beginning with the fall semester of 1968, the college moved from junior-college to senior-college status. The junior year of academic work was added that year, the senior year in June 1969. The first bachelor's degrees were awarded in May 1970. In 1985, the college name officially became Dallas Baptist University, and significant changes were made.

Plagued by financial problems, the school struggled for a number of years. However, in the late 1980s, Gary Cook became president of the university, a turning point in its history. Enrollment has increased and the school has emerged from its financial difficulties.

In 2003, a new academic division was created in the area of leadership studies and was later renamed by the DBU board of trustees the Gary Cook Graduate School of Leadership.

Graduate studies began at DBU in 1981 with the initiation of the Master of Business Administration degree program. Since that time, a total of twenty-one master's degree programs have been added. In addition, DBU began its first doctoral program in the summer of 2005 with the Ph.D in Leadership Studies program and later that year added the Ed.D. in Educational Leadership program.

In any given year there can be 500 international students studying at DBU from more than 50 countries around the world.
DBU's female to male ratio is approximately 2:1 and its student-faculty ratio is 17:1.
While DBU is affiliated with the Baptist denomination, not all students come from a Baptist or even religious background.