Ferrum was founded in 1913. It is a liberal arts institution related to the United Methodist Church. Ferrum's official mission is to educate students in the disciplines of higher learning and to help them be thoughtful and perceptive, to be articulate and professionally capable, and to be caring and concerned citizens of their community, nation, and world. The branch schools closed as public education took hold in the area. The elementary division closed in the early 1940s, followed by the high school division in 1955 to allow the program to concentrate on its junior college offerings. The junior college received accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1960. The college experienced growth and facilities improvement in the 1960s and 1970s and began offering bachelor's degrees in several human service fields in 1977. The college was accredited as a four-year institution by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1976. Today, Ferrum College offers bachelors degrees in thirty major degree programs, and began offering graduate programs in 2020. The college’s environmental science program is the second oldest in the country, and Ferrum is the only private college in Virginia to offer a bachelors degree in Agricultural Science. The college is affiliated with the Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church and the United Methodist Women of the Virginia Annual Conference.
The Blue Ridge Institute and Museum, designated as the State Center for Blue Ridge Folklore by the Virginia General Assembly in 1986, is on the main campus near the Blue Ridge Farm Museum. The Institute holds the annual Blue Ridge Folklife Festival on the fourth Saturday in October to showcase regional traditions. In 1999, the museum's collection of Great Road Pottery was featured on an episode of the American version of Antiques Roadshow.
Athletics
Ferrum College is an NCAA Division III school competing in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, formerly having played in the USA South Athletic Conference from 1988 through 2018. Its football team played in the Atlantic Central Football Conference from 1998 to 2000. Ferrum joined the NCAADivision III in 1985 after being previously classified as a junior college. Under head coach W. H. "Hank" Norton, Ferrum won the National Junior College Athletic Association national football championship four times. Norton's last great team, in 1989, finished third overall in the NCAA Division III. This team featured future AFC leading rusher Chris Warren and Freddie Stovall. Seven members of the Panthers' 1968 championship team—all of whom had transferred to Marshall University—died in the 1970 plane crash which also claimed the lives of 37 Marshall University Thundering Herd players and 30 others, including the team's coaches, 25 boosters and the entire flight crew. Ferrum was the first college in Virginia to offer collegiate women’s wrestling. In March 2019, Ferrum College hosted the NCAA Division III men’s wrestling championships, held at the Berglund Center in Roanoke, Virginia. In January 2020, the College announced plans to launch both women’s and men’s track & field programs beginning in the fall 2020 season. The spring 2020 athletics season was abruptly canceled in March of that year, due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
