JUC was founded in 1957. It offers an independent two-year graduate program of courses leading to the degrees of
Master of Arts in Biblical History and Geography, Hebrew and Cognate Languages, Middle Eastern Cultures and Religions, and the Hebraic Roots of Christianity. For consortium students, it offers a graduate or undergraduate semester or year abroad (in Israel), as well as shorter two and three week courses. The campus has been located on
Mount Zion, outside the
Old City of Jerusalem near the
Jaffa Gate, since 1967, and overlooks the
Hinnom Valley (Valley of Gehenna). The campus grounds were formerly the Bishop Gobat School (est. 1847 by
Samuel Gobat), which moved in 1853 in the building erected on unused reserve land of the Protestant
Mount Zion Cemetery. It was one of the first structures to be built outside the
Old City of Jerusalem, the others being
Kerem Avraham, the
Schneller Orphanage,
Mishkenot Sha'ananim and the
Russian Compound, Instructors hail from across the political and religious spectrum but mainly espouse conservative evangelical Christian thought as represented by the member schools of the consortium,"—these schools include a wide range of Protestant traditions. JUC is accredited by the
Asia Theological Association (ATA) and is an international affiliate of the
Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. Jerusalem University College had approximately 32,000 students as of 2021. About 800 students study there each year. ==Accreditation==