The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as
Cooper Union or
The Cooper Union and informally referred to, especially during the 19th century, as "the Cooper Institute", is a privately funded college located in
Cooper Square in the
East Village neighborhood of
Manhattan,
New York City. Inspired in 1830 when
Peter Cooper learned about the government-supported
École Polytechnique in
France, Cooper Union was established in 1859. The school was built on a radical new model of American higher education based on founder
Peter Cooper's fundamental belief that an education "equal to the best technology schools [then] established" should be accessible to those who qualify, independent of their race, religion, sex, wealth or social status, and should be "open and free to all". The Cooper Union originally granted each admitted student a full-tuition scholarship; that policy has been eliminated beginning with the class entering in the Fall of 2014, although every incoming student receives at the very least a half-tuition merit scholarship.