How to Find News, Search, and Main Sections on the Duke University Website

The Duke University homepage at duke.edu is the starting point for everything on the site. From there you can reach three core entry points: the News section for current stories and updates, the Search function for finding specific topics, people, or programs, and the Main menu for academics, admissions, research, and campus life. All three are reachable directly from the homepage without needing to know a deeper URL.

Start on the homepage

Open duke.edu. The homepage is designed as a launchpad rather than a full directory, so it surfaces a small number of featured items and then hands you off to the sections above. The page currently leads with a feature on the United States' 250th birthday, framed through Duke's work and engagement across campus and in the community, under the heading "Democracy's Long Journey." That feature describes a Duke and Durham collaboration exploring who "the people" have been and who we hope to become, with performances, exhibitions, and conversations running through 2027, and an invitation to "Engage with the Past."

Treat that kind of lead feature as a signal of what Duke is currently emphasizing, not as the whole of the site. To go further, use the three entry points below.

Find the News section

Use News when you want current stories and updates rather than static information about programs or admissions.

• Look for the News heading in the site's navigation. It appears among the homepage's headings, which is your confirmation that it is a top-level destination rather than a sub-page buried under another section.
• Expect the News area to carry institutional stories, research coverage, and campus announcements. The homepage feature on the nation's evolving identity is an example of the kind of long-running, themed coverage that flows through Duke's news and engagement channels.
• If you are following a specific theme over time — such as the 250th-birthday programming running through 2027 — the News section is where continuing coverage is most likely to accumulate.

Use the site search

Use Search when you already know what you are looking for: a person, a department, a program, a policy, or a phrase.

• Search is listed as its own heading on the homepage, so it is a first-class tool rather than something hidden in a footer.
• Enter a specific term rather than a broad category. Searching a named program or a person's name will get you to a result faster than searching "research" or "academics," which will return many equally valid pages.
• Search is the better choice when you have a target and the main menu is the better choice when you are browsing. If you do not yet know the exact name of what you want, start with the main menu and narrow from there.

Navigate the main menu

Use the Main menu when you want to browse by category — academics, admissions, research, and campus life.

• Main menu appears as a heading on the homepage, which tells you it is the primary navigation structure for the site.
• Think of it as the table of contents: it organizes the university into its major functional areas so you can move from a broad area to a specific page.
• This is the right entry point for prospective students looking at admissions, current students and faculty looking for academic or research units, and visitors looking for campus life information.

Which entry point should you use?

Common snags

• The homepage is not a sitemap. If you cannot find something there, that is expected — move to Search or the Main menu rather than scrolling further.
• A featured story is not the News index. The homepage highlights one item at a time; the News section is where the broader stream lives.
• Search rewards specificity. Broad queries return many valid pages with no clear winner, which makes the main menu the faster path for exploratory browsing.

Once you are on duke.edu, the three headings News, Search, and Main menu are all you need to orient yourself: News for what is happening, Search for what you already have in mind, and the Main menu for everything organized by category.