Anderson University

Located in the vibrant city of Anderson, South Carolina, Anderson University is a selective, comprehensive university offering bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees on campus and online.

Students can choose among 36 majors, 38 concentrations, and 25 minors, and we are ranked as one of the best regional colleges in the South by both U. S. News and World Report and The Princeton Review. In addition to our "Top Tier" academic ranking, AU has been recognized by U.S. News and World Report as one of the top 35 universities in the South whose graduates accumulate the least amount of educational debt.

At the heart of our educational program is an uncompromising commitment to the liberal arts as a means of preparing students with both breadth and depth of knowledge they need not only to be successful in the career of their choice but to be successful in all realms of life – in family, community, work, and church.

The best way to learn about AU is to see our campus and talk to our students, faculty, and staff. Schedule a visit or call our Office of Admissions at 864.231.2030.

Our Mission

Anderson University is an academic community, affiliated with the South Carolina Baptist Convention, providing a challenging education grounded in the liberal arts, enhanced by professional and graduate programs and a co-curricular focus on developing character, servant leadership, and cultural engagement. This is a diverse community that is Christ-centered, people-focused, student-oriented, quality-driven, and future-directed.

Our Vision

To be a premier teaching university where liberal arts and professional studies thrive within a distinctively Christian community of faculty, staff and students dedicated to learning and service.

Our Values

Anderson University takes pride in being able to function as a community rather than a conglomerate. Accordingly, we have adopted a set of community values that support our aspiration to fulfill the University’s mission and achieve its vision, both of which are considerable aims. Values serve as guiding principles that shape our daily actions. These are dimensions of our community we believe are very important and should be known and understood by everyone within our institution.

A Commitment to a Christian Community

Anderson University is a Christ-centered community that presents Jesus as the Christ and as the ultimate model for personal behavior. The unifying principle of Anderson University is a Christian vision of life in which community participants are encouraged to develop a Christian worldview and live up to the high calling of the Great Commandments which tells us to love God with our hearts, with our minds, and with our souls, and to love others completely. We seek to build an academic community where men and women can be lovingly and gracefully introduced to an understanding of God, His creation and grace, and humanity’s place of great privilege and responsibility in God’s world.

A Commitment to Liberal Arts

Anderson University is dedicated to provide a challenging commitment to Liberal Arts. Anderson University is a comprehensive institution that provides a challenging education. We offer a variety of majors and concentrations in both the liberal arts and the professional disciplines. All programs provide the student with a rigorous and engaging learning experiences that emphasizes the knowledge, intellectual skills, and conceptual frameworks central to the discipline. A central, cohering value of the Anderson University academic experience is that each field of study includes a rich core of liberal arts courses in the foundational fields of human knowledge and achievement. These courses comprise the requisite knowledge to facilitate the development of skills in critical thinking, interpersonal relationships, ethical reflection, and an appreciation of the fine arts as integral to an educated citizenry.

A Commitment to the Individual

A Commitment to Students

Anderson University is a student-oriented community where our core process is teaching and learning aimed at the development of graduates of disciplined intelligence, competence, character, and faith. We acknowledge that significant responsibility for their education. Thus, Anderson University provides opportunities for academic, spiritual, social, and physical growth through the academic program as well as co-curricular programs including Campus Ministries, student government and student activities, residence life, athletics, community service, and health services.

A Commitment to a Diverse Student Body

Anderson University is committed to recruiting students who are supportive of the mission of the university as a Christian institution and who can benefit from the academic programs and student services offered. Our goal is to recruit a student body broadly representative of the cultural and ethnic diversity of our region and characterizes the society in which graduates will live and work. The University seeks to offer programs appropriate for resident students, commuting students, traditional university age students, and adult students, as well as graduate students. Moreover, Anderson University has a primary goal to provide a safe and supportive environment that fosters the development of the whole person and nurtures respect for the worth of the individual, the sanctity of life, and for all God’s creation.

A Commitment to Continuous Quality Improvement

Anderson University is a quality-driven community where a commitment to continuous quality improvement enhances all aspects of the university, as well as improves the effectiveness of individuals in carrying out our responsibilities. Being a quality-driven institution requires us to be a “learning organization” wherein we constantly learn from our own organizational experience, we stay abreast of and learn from best practices in the larger higher education community, and we continuously strive to strengthen and add value to our institution so it can function at its best and serve its stakeholders to the fullest of its potential.

A Commitment to the Future

A Commitment to Servant Leadership

Anderson University seeks to equip men and women to have the skills, knowledge, and dispositions to impact their communities and the world through their professional contributions and spiritual gifts. Our goal is to develop servant leaders who live out their daily lives at home and at work with a deep and profound commitment to the tenets of Jesus Christ. Most importantly, servant leaders are first and foremost servants. They are affirmative builders of a better society. They understand the value of effective listening and are skilled communicators. Servant leaders have empathy for others and are accepting of diverse people. Servant leaders have power through a voluntary commitment of others. They are able to view events and situations from a broad perspective yet also spend time in the trenches and understand the practical and realistic. They help others grow to become wiser and more independent and ultimately to become servant leaders themselves.