Greetings! I am pleased that you are interested in Northern Kentucky University as your choice to pursue your education.
What you will find at NKU are professors who care about their students, quality programs, small class sizes, convenient course offerings, great location, and easy access to many student organizations. When you become an NKU student, you will be central to our mission as a learner-centered campus.
Your educational journey is just beginning. We welcome you to join the over 14,000 other students who are pursuing their dreams at Northern Kentucky University.
In 1998, the University completed its five-year strategic agenda under the title "Defining Our Future."
This documents express the following vision:
"Northern Kentucky University will become a preeminent, learner-centered, metropolitan university
recognized for its contributions to the intellectual, social economic, cultural, and civic vitality of
its region and that of the Commonwealth."
As we work to achieve our vision, we will be guided by a set of core values that inform our actions and
bind us together as an academic community.
We are committed to placing the learner at the center of all that we do. We will serve the learner
through our core mission to discover, interpret, apply, and transmit knowledge. As a university, we are a
community of learners capable of adaptation and improvement based on new knowledge and insights.
We are committed to the highest standards of excellence in everything that we do--as judged not only by ourselves but also by those we serve--and to a process of continuous quality improvement based on a
culture of evidence.
Access with the Opportunity to Succeed
We are committed to lifelong public access to education and expert knowledge and to ensuring that
learners enrolled in the University have the preparation required to succeed. We measure our success by
the accomplishments, the commitments, and the satisfaction of our graduates.
We are committed to treating the metropolitan region as an extension of our campus. We will build
partnerships throughout the region that both server the learning needs of the public and enhance the
learning opportunities available to our faculty, staff, and students.
Intellectual and Creative Freedom
We are committed to intellectual and creative freedom and to the open expression of ideas in a way that
supports scholarship and the advanced learning process.
We are committed to advancing multicultural understanding within both the University and the community as an educational and civic priority.
We re committed to innovative approaches for achieving our vision and will create a campus
environment that encourages and rewards creativity and innovation.
Collegiality and Collaboration
We are committed to building a University community characterized by open communication and
shared responsibility for decisions. We will build a culture of collegiality and collaboration within and
between the University and the public we serve.