Lourdes University is a independent, private, Catholic university in Sylvania, Ohio, 10 miles (16 km) northwest of Toledo. The university also operates an extension location for its nursing program in Sandusky, Ohio.

The liberal-arts institution opened in 1958 as Lourdes Junior College, and its academic culture is rooted in the Catholic Franciscan tradition. Lourdes offers baccalaureate degree programs in the arts, business, education, nursing, sciences and social work as well as graduate degrees in education, nursing, organizational leadership and theology. The institution also offers pre-professional programs such as art therapy, engineering, law, medicine, occupational therapy, physical therapy and veterinary science. It is classified as a Master’s university by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Lourdes has been named a “Best in the Midwest” college by the Princeton Review for seven consecutive years from 2004-2011.

Lourdes currently has an enrollment of about 2,600 students. The university provides a variety of social, recreational and educational activities to further enrich students’ lives, ranging from music concerts and educational lectures to intramural sports. Community service and volunteer activties are encouraged, and the university provides many opportunities for service experience, such as Habitat for Humanity. The university began an intercollegiate athletics program in 2010 and competes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference.