Independent Colleges and Universities Provide the Best Quality and Value

Education is the foundation of free society, and the independent college is the cornerstone. The first private colleges predate the founding of our nation. Cherished bequests from our national heritage, the distinctive values of these independent institutions have profoundly influenced our national character. They remain essential for effectively shaping our society’s future.

Reflecting diversity

Independent colleges and universities are a precious resource offering our increasingly diverse society an array of choices. Located in virtually every region of America, they include students representing all points of our nation’s cultural mosaic. Focused on the educational and cultural needs of the student, they offer an immediacy and an intensity of learning which is not likely found in larger, tax-supported institutions.

Good citizenship

Independent colleges and universities have unique relationships with the communities in which they are sited. They are significant economic engines within local economies, both as employer and consumer. It is, though, the human values taught and practiced at independent colleges which most deeply and positively impact a community’s life.

Colleges are centers of cultural resource and enrichment. The presence of libraries, of music, art, and drama, and of faculty expertise, raises the quality of life for all. Increasingly, citizens of a campus are understanding themselves as citizens of a larger community. Faculty members and students are devoting volunteer time and energy to local causes in increasing numbers. Concern for others is one of the traditional values that is taught at independent colleges. This principle also has a practical side, as some of the best learning occurs when classroom instruction is integrated with real life experience.

Quality and impact

The effectiveness of an institution or business is best measured by outcomes. By any measure, private higher education has influenced our society at a level of quality and impact exceeding its presence. Enrolling 21 percent of all students, independent colleges and universities award 33 percent of all Bachelor’s degrees, 43 percent of all Master’s degrees, and 61 percent of all first professional degrees in such fields as law, medicine, engineering, and business. They recruit, retain, and graduate minority students at a rate 25 percent higher than public institutions.

High graduation rates

A telling fact regarding the efficiency of an institution of higher education is the number of students who graduate in four years. Only 34 percent of students attending tax-supported institutions graduate in four years, whereas the four-year graduation rate at independent colleges is more than 65 percent. This is one of the many reliable indicators of the individualized attention on the educational needs of students provided by these institutions.

Students first

What these statistics reveal goes to the very nature and purpose of the private college. In its classrooms, a student is a person, not a number. Its campus is a community, and each student can be an important member of that community due to its relatively small size and scale. Leadership opportunities are abundant, and close mentoring relationships between faculty members and students are quick to develop. Large, tax-supported universities may be good at providing a mass educational experience, but private colleges excel at educating the individual.