Washburn University is a public institution in Kansas which runs a vast number of liberal arts and professional courses. It is located in Topeka, the state’s capital city, and the site of one of the key moments in civil rights history, the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, which helped end state-sponsored segregation in schools. Topeka is home to an excellent state museum and an impressive state parliament.

Founded in 1865, and coeducational from the outset, the university is named after Ichabod Washburn, an abolitionist, church deacon and philanthropist who bankrolled the college in its early years.

In total, there are over 200 study programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate level, from astronomy to contemporary journalism, kinesiology, peace, justice & conflict resolution studies, public relations and radiologic technology. A large proportion of Washburn students take part in internships during the course of their studies.

Its 160-acre residential campus is in the south west of town, 70 miles from Kansas City, the other side of the Missouri border, and 150 miles north east of Wichita, the largest city in Kansas. Much of the campus was damaged by the Topeka tornado in 1966, but no-one was killed.

Bob Dole, the 1996 Republican candidate for president who lost out to Bill Clinton, Greg Brenneman, the former CEO of Burger King and PWC Consulting, and Kerry Livgren, the co-founder and lead songwriter from prog rock band Kansas, were all educated at Washburn.