Duke University has received a $40-million gift that will help it add 32 endowed faculty positions focused on undergraduate education. The university said $25-million of the gift — from the Duke Endowment, a charitable trust that is independent of the university — would be used to support 10 assistant professorships and 10 associate professorships. The university will use the remaining $15-million to match additional gifts to endow 12 chairs for full professors.

The university’s president, Richard H. Brodhead, said in a written statement that the money would help Duke to fulfill two major goals of its strategic plan: attracting and keeping “outstanding” faculty members and increasing significantly “those undergraduate learning experiences that focus on research and laboratory and field experiences under close faculty supervision.”

“Many of these positions will be in the schools with undergraduate programs; others will enable the professional schools to hire faculty who will also teach undergraduates,” he added. —Goldie Blumenstyk