City University is a private nonprofit institution of higher education. Its mission is to provide educational opportunities world wide, primarily to segments of the population not being fully served. The mission is based on these philosophical principles:
• Education is a lifelong process and must be relevant to the student's aspirations
• Education should be affordable and offered, as much as possible, at the student's convenience
• Opportunity to learn should be open to anyone with the desire to achieve
Each degree or certificate awarded by City University of Seattle is an affirmation of the knowledge, skill, and academic attainment of the recipient. The University's success as an institution is measured by the accomplishments of its graduates and their individual contributions to society
Founded in the city of Seattle in 1973 as City College, the name of the institution was changed to City University in 1982 by action of its Board of Governors. Influenced in its early organization by the recommendations of the Carnegie Commission Report and the Seattle 2000 Commission, the University was one of the nation's first to address the needs of the working adult.
The philosophy of City University is succinctly expressed by the following quotation taken from the 1973 report of the National Commission on Non-Traditional Study:
''....An attitude that puts the student first and the institution second. It concentrates more on the former's needs than the letter's convenience, and encourages diversity of individual opportunity and de-emphasizes time and space....''
The University awards degrees and certificates at the undergraduate and graduate levels in dozens of academic fields,and offers a varied and extensive program of continuing education. It also conducts a worldwide Distance Education program to better serve those who need or prefer to study for their degrees at home.
City University of Seattle offers instruction in nearly two dozen locations throughout the State of Washington, as well as in the State of California, the Canadian Provinces of British Columbia and Alberta, and Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Romania, Slovakia, China and Mexico.
The dispersion of instructional sites and the use of a variety of delivery systems is consistent with the University's mission, which is to make education conve¬nient to all. As the University has grown, its aims have been accepted throughout the world. The idea of education as a lifelong process, unhindered by time, pattern or location, has gained nationwide recognition and is today taken for granted. City University of Seattle is proud of the role it has played in the vanguard of this liberating movement.