List of longest-serving higher education presidents in the United States

The longest serving president of a United States institution of higher education is Eliphalet Nott, who served at Union College in Schenectady, New York, for 62 years (1805–66).

Criteria
According to a 2007 report from the American Council on Education, only about 5% of all in-office college presidents had served longer than 20 years. The table below considers candidates who can be demonstrated to have served for 30 years or longer unless another distinguishing factor warrants inclusion. Records for the longest-serving college or university presidents are usually kept by the respective institutions themselves.