From its establishment as Wilmington College in 1947 with 238 students to its record-setting enrollment of more than 12,000 in 2008, the University of North Carolina Wilmington has transformed the lives of its students over the past 60 years and has had a major impact on the community it serves. Consistently recognized by several publications as a top public undergraduate institution, the university continues to soar to even greater heights.

In the 2009 edition of America's Best Colleges published by U.S.News & World Report, UNCW was ranked the sixth best public regional university in the South. This is the 11th consecutive year UNCW was ranked in the top 10. Among the 121 public and private universities in the South that provide a full range of undergraduate and master's level programs, UNCW maintained its overall ranking of 14th.

According to the 2008 Forbes special report on America's best colleges, UNCW ranks second among the public universities in North Carolina, behind only UNC Chapel Hill. UNCW also was rated second among its peer institutions, with only James Madison University ranking higher.

UNC Wilmington was named among the 2009 "Best in the Southeast" by The Princeton Review, making this the fifth consecutive year the university has been honored with this designation. Colleges were selected based upon student responses to a survey about their respective schools' academics, administration, campus life and student body.

UNC Wilmington is one of the top five "Best Values" among public universities in North Carolina, according to Kiplinger's 2008 rankings and is one of only four North Carolina public universities included in Peterson's Competitive Colleges 2008: Top Colleges for Top Students.

This year's freshman class has the highest average SAT score (1158) in the university's history, among the highest in the UNC system. The average high school GPA for the class was 3.75.

The university is made up of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Cameron School of Business, the School of Nursing, the Watson School of Education and the Graduate School. It offers 73 bachelor's degrees and 25 master’s degrees, a Ph.D. in marine biology and an Ed.D. in educational leadership.

Enrollment for 2008-09 includes approximately 11,300 undergraduates and 1,300 graduate students. Estimated cost of attending UNCW for 2008-09 for in-state students living on campus is $15,251 and $25,418 for out-of-state students.

UNCW's strength in the natural sciences, especially biological sciences, chemistry and other disciplines, form the core of its internationally respected niche in the marine sciences. In the area of arts and literature, UNCW's highest profile programs are in film studies and creative writing. The Department of Film Studies has evolved from a few film-related courses in various departments to the fourth-largest major on campus. The Master of Fine Arts in creative writing has become one of the most respected on the East Coast. Degree programs in the School of Nursing, Watson School of Education and Cameron School of Business are designed specifically to meet professional workforce needs in the region.

UNCW's Randall Library contains more than 960,000 volumes, subscribes to approximately 25,000 periodicals and has 22,000 videos/DVDs, 27,000 e-books and 53,000 audio titles. The library is a selective depository for U.S. government publications and is a full depository for North Carolina documents, which are available to all users. Adult North Carolina residents (over 18 and out of high school) may purchase a borrower's card, valid for one year, for $15 upon presentation of a valid North Carolina driver's license or military ID. The fee is waived for citizens age 65 years and older. Non-students may obtain checkout privileges for up to four items per visit.

The university has taken a leadership role in the long-term economic, environmental, educational, social and cultural health of southeastern North Carolina. Overall, UNCW has an annual $500 million economic impact on the eight-county region of southeastern North Carolina. This represents 10 percent of total economic activity and supports more than 7,700 jobs. Through the Professional Development System in the Watson School of Education, faculty work closely with nearly 100 area schools and agencies to improve the quality of public education in the region. The School of Nursing has developed collaborative partnerships with area health-care providers to improve community health-care services.

The UNCW Center for Business and Economics Services, the business research and extension division of the Cameron School of Business, maintains a database to monitor and analyze business and economic trends and conditions in the region. The Small Business and Technology Development Center provides counseling services and training events to area businesses.

The Division for Public Service and Continuing Studies carries out the university's strong commitment to adult learners by offering short, non-credit university courses, seminars, lectures, travel excursions and other educational opportunities through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. The Adult Scholars Leadership Program provides students with an up-to-date snapshot of the political, economic, educational, law enforcement, historical and cultural forces that drive Southeastern North Carolina. Participants identify and respond to critical issues, invest their organizational and entrepreneurial talents to solve problems and volunteer in the community.

Based at the UNCW Center for Marine Science at Myrtle Grove, MarineQuest is a popular youth program that offers marine and environmental education through the Summer Science-by-the-Sea Day Camp, Coast Trek and OceanLab. It also offers the Odyssey Program for adults.

The UNCW Executive Development Center at the New Hanover County Northeast Regional Library offers corporate and community groups a state-of-the-art facility for professional meetings, retreats and small conferences. The center is designed to accommodate groups of various sizes and needs and offers high-speed wireless Internet, video conferencing, an on-site technician, a convenient location and ample parking.

The UNCW Seahawks compete in the Colonial Athletic Association as an NCAA Division I program, fielding 19 varsity teams. In 2008 UNCW's student-athletes captured three CAA championships: men's track and field, men's swimming and diving and women's golf. Overall the student-athletes have consistently posted one of the highest average GPAs in the UNC system and have the second highest graduation rate in the CAA.

For general university information, call (910) 962-3000. For information on undergraduate admissions call (910) 962-3243; for graduate studies call (910) 962-3135. For information on lifelong learning programs call (910) 962-3195. Contact Randall Library at (910) 962-3760.

As one of North Carolina's largest community colleges, Cape Fear Community College (CFCC) provides a wide variety of educational services and job training for students of all ages. Dedicated to providing career training for local people for local jobs, CFCC is a major educational and economic development presence in the area and serves more than 27,000 students every year.

The main campus is located along the Cape Fear River in Downtown Wilmington. The North Campus, located on a site in northern New Hanover County, offers more than a dozen technical, engineering and business programs. The North Campus is also home to a new state-of-the-art safety training center for fire fighters, law enforcement and rescue personnel. A Pender County satellite center is located in Burgaw, about 21 miles north of Wilmington, (910) 259-4966. Classes are also held at area schools and community centers. Most recently, CFCC began offering classes at the Surf City Community Center.

CFCC offers more than 60 programs in technical and skilled trades, along with a very popular college transfer program. The college's two-year Associate in Applied Science (A.A.S.) degrees include: accounting, architectural technology, associate degree nursing, automotive systems technology, business administration, chemical technology, computer engineering technology, criminal justice technology, dental hygiene, e-commerce, early childhood associate, electrical/electronics technology (instrumental concentration), environmental science technology, heavy equipment and transport technology (marine systems concentration), hotel and restaurant management, information systems, interior design, landscape gardening, machining technology, marine technology, mechanical engineering technology, mechanical engineering technology (drafting and design concentration), network administration and support occupational therapy assistant, office systems technology, paralegal technology and radiography. CFCC's newest health care program is surgical technology.

One-year diploma programs include: air conditioning, heating and refrigeration technology, auto-body repair, boat building, carpentry, cosmetology, dental assisting, early childhood associate, electrical/electronics technology (marine systems concentration), film/video production, industrial maintenance technology, marine propulsion systems, masonry, medical transcription, pharmacy technology, practical nursing and welding technology.

Twenty-two certificate programs range from six weeks to two semesters. They include many of the same areas as the diploma and degree-granting programs, but training is less comprehensive and of shorter duration. Some others are truck driver training, manicuring/nail technology, real estate and real estate appraisal, customer service and licensed practical nurse refresher.

As part of its continuing education services, the Cape Fear Community College's Center for Business, Industry and Government offers low-cost computer classes and provides customized seminars, workshops and training programs for local companies and organizations. Through the Gateway Program, CFCC offers college classes to high school students so that they can earn college credit while still in high school. CFCC recently established an Early College for Pender County and will open an Early College in New Hanover County in the fall of 2007. The college also offers free courses in high-school equivalency (GED), English as a Second Language (ESL) and adult literacy. Many other special programs and seminars are free or very reasonably priced. CFCC's Marine Technology program is the only one of its kind on the East Coast. The college maintains small and large ocean-going vessels for the program, which is enhanced by a deep-water pier on the Cape Fear River at the Wilmington campus. One of these vessels was integral to the recovery of artifacts from the wreck of what is believed to be Blackbeard's flagship, Queen Anne's Revenge.

The college has a growing number of intercollegiate sports teams in men's basketball, men's soccer, golf, women's soccer and women's volleyball. Day and evening classes in semester-long cycles are available at all campuses, and financial aid is available for eligible applicants.

Cape Fear Community College is one of 58 colleges in the North Carolina Community College System and is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The public is always welcome to visit the campus to see all that CFCC has to offer.

For more than 90 years Miller-Motte College has been a reputable leader in private career education. Founded in 1916 by Judge Leon Motte, the school originally provided courtroom stenography training. Today, however, the college has adjusted its course offerings as changes in business, industry and healthcare have mandated and now offers a varied, cutting-edge curriculum that includes training in Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA), A+ computer repair, information processing, criminal justice, paralegal, nursing, cosmetology, esthetics, nail tech, massage therapy, medical assisting, dental assisting, surgical technology, management, allied health and accounting, These programs range from nine-month certification programs to degrees at the associate's and bachelor's levels.

To help accommodate the many time restrictions students face, classes are available day, evening and online. Registration is ongoing throughout the year, financial assistance is available for those who qualify, and the college offers lifetime job placement services for its graduates. Miller-Motte College is accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, approved by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors and licensed by the North Carolina Community College System. The college, located at 5000 Market Street, is in a continual process of assessing and revising its curriculum in order to keep pace with improvements in technology and the increasing needs of business and industry.

Mount Olive College at Wilmington offers convenient, flexible programs for working adults. Mount Olive College is geographically distributed in six eastern North Carolina communities, including Mount Olive, Goldsboro, New Bern, Washington, the Research Triangle Park area of Raleigh-Durham and Wilmington. The college provides degree programs in locations, times and formats that fit the busy lifestyles of working adults. Through their innovative approach to education, working adults have the opportunity to earn a degree while continuing their employment. Students enter a class, meet four hours one night a week and complete a sequence of courses that lead to an associate’s or bachelor’s degree.

Mount Olive College at Wilmington offers both associate's and bachelor's degree options. The Heritage Plus program, designed specifically for working adults who have little or no college experience, provides the core courses needed for an associate’s degree. In addition, Mount Olive College offers the following bachelor's degree programs: criminal justice and criminology, early childhood education, healthcare management, and management and organizational development.

Mount Olive College at Wilmington has a tradition of student-focused, supportive programming and teaching styles. Courses are discussion-oriented, emphasizing critical thinking and writing skills. Classes are small, allowing students and faculty the opportunity for personal interaction. Tuition includes all books and fees. Financial aid is available. Mount Olive College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award associate and baccalaureate degrees.

Brunswick Community College (BCC) has been serving Brunswick County since 1979 and currently enrolls more than 10,000 curriculum and continuing education students. The college offers certificates, diplomas and associate degree programs. In addition, job-skills and workforce development training are available. BCC is meeting the future needs of Brunswick County through expansion and is currently constructing a new facility for Early Childhood Education, as well as a new Student Center and Wellness and Aquatics Center. Continuing Education Centers will be built in Southport and the South Brunswick Islands, and renovations are being made to the BCC Leland Center. Recently completed construction projects include an Applied Plant Sciences Building and the addition of an Events Center to the Odell Williamson Auditorium.

New at BCC is an associate degree program in surveying technology. In collaboration with Regis University, BCC students may transfer credits to Regis and complete their bachelor's degree online. Associate Degree Programs may allow students to transfer credits to a four-year college and include: associate in arts, associate in fine arts, associate in science, early childhood education, and pre-majors in biology and biology education, business administration, accounting, economics, finance, marketing, criminal justice, elementary education and nursing.

Diploma and Certificate Programs provide an opportunity for advanced training in less than two years. Programs include: accounting, aquaculture technology, basic law enforcement training, business administration, business administration/small business entrepreneur, cosmetology, cosmetology instructor, early childhood education, early childhood education/administration, early childhood education/school age, early childhood education/special education, early childhood education/teacher associate, esthetics instructor, esthetics technology; general occupation technology; health information technology, horticulture technology, horticulture technology/landscape specialty, horticulture technology/nursery specialty, infant and toddler care, lateral entry, manicuring technology, manicuring/nail technology, networking technology, nursing assistant, office systems technology, phlebotomy, practical nursing, turfgrass management technology, and welding technology. Workforce Development courses provide opportunity for occupational training and include: fire and rescue training, heating and air conditioning, plumbing, welding, nursing aide, and many others.

BCC offers a variety of distance-learning classes. These courses are taught via Internet and interactive video. Community and continuing education courses provide an outlet for community members to learn new skills or participate in classes for personal enrichment. Learning opportunities include emergency services training, computer skills classes, and many various personal enrichment classes like tango, drawing, and the coffee hour series, to name a few. Also offered through continuing education are free basic skills training, which includes English as a Second Language (ESL), adult high school and high school equivalency (GED). Individuals have access to more than 300 online courses through BCC's ed2go.com/Brunswick program. The BCC Interagency Program is located on the main campus and provides comprehensive education/vocational services that enables individuals with developmental disabilities to reach their full potential, become more independent, and fully participate in their communities. Through its New and Expanding Industry Program and its Small Business Center, BCC works closely with area business and industry to tailor skills training to their needs. The College assists industry in seeking, evaluating, training and retraining employees according to changing standards.

The BCC library provides college students, faculty, staff and adult residents of the county with access to a variety of educational resources and services. Twenty thousand educational resources are available in the library collection and can be searched using the online catalog. Several computer workstations are available in the library for access to educational information online. The Brunswick Educational Transition Center serves residents whose first language is not English. The center is a collaboration between BCC and the government of Mexico. This is the first center of its kind in a community college in the United States.

The BCC Odell Williamson Auditorium is a 1,500-seat facility that serves as the Center for the Arts in Southeastern North Carolina. The center provides artistic expression to the region in the form of music, theater, concerts and much more.

The Center for Marine Science (CMS) at the University of North Carolina Wilmington provides an environment that fosters a multidisciplinary approach to questions in basic and applied research in the fields of oceanography, coastal and wetland studies, marine biomedical and environmental physiology, and marine biotechnology and aquaculture. Faculty members conducting marine science research in the departments of biology and marine biology, chemistry and biochemistry, geography and geology, and physics and physical oceanography participate in this program. They serve on regional, national and international research and policy advisory groups, thereby contributing to the development of agendas on marine research in the United States and the world. International interactions with labs in Europe, North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Africa, Bermuda, the Bahamas and Caribbean, and all regions of the coastal United States augment extensive programs addressing North Carolina coastal issues. By integrating these advisory functions with research programs of the highest quality, CMS enhances the educational experience provided by UNCW for both undergraduate and graduate students in marine science.

Located on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway just six miles from the main campus, the 100,000-square-foot Center for Marine Science provides easy access to regional marine environments such as tidal marshes/mud flats/sand flats, tidal creeks, barrier islands and tidal inlets, the waterway, near-shore forests and both highly developed and minimally developed estuarine environments. It has a 900-foot pier on the waterway, which can accommodate several coastal research vessels, and maintains specialized equipment for underwater research and 19 research vessels ranging in size from 16 to 70 feet. The facility includes a 150-seat teaching auditorium, fully equipped research laboratories, classrooms, marine science laboratories, a greenhouse with running seawater, a radioisotope lab, computer workrooms, cold rooms, walk-in freezers and temperature-controlled rooms.

The center serves as host for the NOAA–sponsored National Undersea Research Center, the Coastal Ocean Research and Monitoring Program, an extension office for N.C. Sea Grant, the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, the N.C. National Estuarine Research Reserve, the Harmful Algal Bloom Laboratories for Analytical Biotechnology and UNCW's MarineQuest Program, an extensive community outreach program for public schools and adult education.

The Bluefish Society supports the center's public outreach efforts, helping to defray operating costs for the popular Planet Ocean Seminar Series and other community enrichment programs. An individual membership is $75 per year; membership for a couple is $150; family membership is $200 per year. Contributors have the opportunity to interact with world-renowned scientists, high-level government officials and other environmental experts featured at Planet Ocean Seminars. They also receive invitations to selected special events at the center, discounts on Odyssey programs and a Bluefish Society lapel pin.

The U.S. Congress created the National Estuarine Research Reserve system in 1972 to preserve undisturbed estuarine systems for research into and education about the impact of human activity on barrier beaches, adjacent estuaries and ocean waters. The reserves are outdoor classrooms and laboratories for researchers, students, naturalists and others. The headquarters of the North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve (NCNERR) is at the UNCW Center for Marine Science Center in cooperation with the N.C. Division of Coastal Management. The NCNERR program manages four estuarine reserve sites as natural laboratories and coordinates research and education activities.

Masonboro Island and Zeke's Island are two of the four components of NCNERR, along with the Rachel Carson Reserve near Beaufort and Currituck Banks in northeastern North Carolina. Nationally threatened loggerhead sea turtles nest at Zeke's Island, Rachel Carson and Masonboro Island. Brown pelicans and ospreys are common to all four points. With more than 5,000 protected acres, Masonboro Island is the last and largest undisturbed barrier island remaining on the southern North Carolina coast and one of the most productive estuarine systems along the coast. The Zeke's Island component of the reserve, immediately south of Fort Fisher, includes almost 2,000 acres and actually consists of three islands – Zeke's, North Island, No-Name Island – and the Basin, the body of water enclosed by the breakwater known locally as the Rocks. NCNERR allows traditional activities to continue, such as fishing and hunting within regulations, on Zeke's and Masonboro Island. (For further information about these islands, see our chapters on Attractions; Camping; and Sports, Fitness and Parks.)

The NCNERR sites are also managed as part of the North Carolina Coastal Reserve (NCCR) system. Containing 10 sites in all, the NCCR serves as the state counterpart to the federal NERR system. In our area, two sites are of particular interest. The first of these is Bald Head Woods on Bald Head Island. This site is the best example of an intact maritime forest in the southeastern part of the state. A globally imperiled ecosystem, the maritime forest serves to stabilize barrier islands and provides habitat for coastal species. The other NCCR site of local interest is Bird Island, located just south of Sunset Beach. While many of the barrier islands along the N.C. coast are experiencing beach erosion, Bird Island is one of the few on which the beach is actually growing larger. As such, visitors can observe the stages of succession in coastal ecosystems as the dunes grow and the beach extends seaward. Both sites are free and open to the public during daylight hours.

One field of research important to the region is horticulture. The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and North Carolina State University run 18 horticultural research stations around the state. The station in Castle Hayne is the primary local research site. Its varied, ongoing programs concentrate on crops of local economic importance, such as blueberries, strawberries, grapes, ornamentals and cucurbits. Variety trials, breeding, insect and disease control, and herbicide tests are among the studies performed. The station works in limited association with the New Hanover County Extension Service arboretum, especially regarding soil studies, but primarily serves local horticulturists by making useful publications available to them through the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service.