Online Christian colleges and universities are best for students who want to combine their faith with their studies in a more flexible time manner. These Christian-affiliated institutions offer accredited programs in a range of disciplines.
They provide a grounded foundation in moral and biblical principles, allowing students to move forward in their academic and chosen career paths with confidence. Online Christian Colleges and Universities are designed to give students the highest level of education and the most advanced equipment for educational learning.
Finding the best online Christian school suitable for you can take quite a lot of time and effort. This is because numerous schools are offering educational programs with a Christian heart in the digital world, and it can be confusing due to the fact that so many good schools exist.
To help you find the best one that will fit your needs, we have compiled the characteristics that make an online Christian school great and list online Christian schools that have those values that you would certainly appreciate.
10 Quality Online Christian Colleges and Universities
Liberty University
Liberty University is perhaps the most famous and largest online Christian university in the country. Liberty offers over 450 online classes, and most, if not all, of the online courses are flexible. Students get to decide their own learning pace.
They are known for their programs in aeronautics, special education, criminal justice, government, and healthcare, but they have a very big offering of educational programs that you can choose from.
Online students have the same access to on-campus faculty members who are experienced and engaging. They can also apply for the same financial aid opportunities as their on-campus peers. Furthermore, Liberty is among the top military schools in the country.
While Liberty University accepts anyone from any faith, they have Southern Baptist tendencies, and the environment of both offline and online lessons has Christian leanings.
Liberty is accredited by the SACSCOC.
You can visit their website here.
Grand Canyon University
Grand Canyon University is more than just a Southern Baptist Christian university. GCU has evolved into something further and is now considered an interdenominational haven for learning. GCU has been accredited by the HLC since 1968.
Having been established in 1949, Grand Canyon University has stayed true to its roots of offering Christian Teaching with modern technology. GCU offers over 300 online programs, from certificate and bachelor’s to post-professional and graduate degrees.
They range from offering liberal arts degrees to health informatics and even accounting. GCU is ranked as one of the best schools for nursing and business degrees by several reputable organizations.
Apart from its academics, GCU is also a top Christian school for athletic students, especially basketball. It’s also a top school for financial assistance, as 80% of its undergrads used grants and scholarships to offset educational costs.
You can visit their website here.
Sterling College
Sterling College, a United Presbyterian University, is accredited by the HLC. It has been providing quality Christian education since 1887.
In addition to being known as one of the best Christian colleges, it’s also known for offering low tuition rates. Their per-credit-hour tuition rates are $145 for a bachelor’s, $400 for a graduate, and $350 for a special ed endorsement. These rates are almost half the average rate of private colleges.
Sterling has been offering online education programs for more than a decade. While their offerings are limited online, their concentrations are known to be competitive in their respective fields. They offer general education courses, programs in behavioral science, history and government, religion, and even criminal justice and mathematics courses.
In fact, they also offer science and physics for general education, which gives them an edge over the usual liberal arts programs that other online Christian schools offer.
You can visit their website here.
Regent University
Regent University is a top Christian research university. While it’s non-denominational, Regent still has the reputation and capability to be considered as part of the Christian Coalition due to its academic excellence and prestige. The SACSCOC accredits Regent University.
They have been in the online scene for more than 20 years already and have very competitive rates. Regent now offers more than 150 degree programs in various fields with an eye on the global industry and most in-demand sectors.
Regent is mostly known for its Government and Leadership tracks. They offer quite a number of elected and appointed officials in the government hailing from this university and having their legal department considered as a good law school.
Additionally, their business programs have gained traction due to their high-quality curriculum and innovative approaches to teaching. Regent’s School of Business & Leadership greatly emphasizes ethical leadership and entrepreneurship.
University of St. Francis
The University of St. Francis is highly regarded for its respectful ecumenism and more than a hundred years of Catholic tradition. Recognized by the US News & World Report, USF’s faculty is a mix of Franciscan and non-Catholic and non-Christian professionals.
USF is mainly focused on providing advancement opportunities to adult students but it is not rare to find younger students enrolled in an online class. To encourage more students to continue their education, USF offers over 100 institutional scholarships and grants annually. 98% of incoming USF freshmen received some financial assistance.
USF Online concentrates more on the Business and Liberal Arts rather than the sciences, but Health Care and Social Work are available too. The graduate track has more variety, though, with Education and Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing offered, too.
USF is fully recognized by the HLC.
For more information, visit their website here.
LeTourneau University
LeTourneau, a non-denominational Christian school, focuses on reaching out to adult learners or people who have day jobs. The University aims to help them get the education that will lift them higher in life, both spiritually and career-wise.
Aside from being one of the oldest schools for nontraditional students, LeTourneau is also one of the pioneers for an adult online Christian education. It offers over 100 online courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
The university’s namesake is the so-called ‘God’s Businessman” Robert Gilmour LeTourneau, who values engineering and applied sciences. This importance of the hard sciences is also seen in the academic courses it offers, which include Engineering and Aviation.
This is one of the best Christian universities in the country if you are interested in getting an online education in Engineering Technology, Aviation, Computer Information Systems, and even Mathematics Education.
It has received recognition and accolades for its special focus on the sciences, which is difficult to find among online Christian Schools. It has also appeared more than twelve times in the US News and World Report, giving further proof of its SACSCOC-accredited quality.
You can read more about LTU here.
Saint Leo University
Saint Leo University is a not-for-profit Roman Catholic University accredited by the SACSCOC. The US News and World Report recognize SLU as one of the top social mobility schools. It’s also one of the best online Christian colleges with teachers and professors of different faiths.
SLU’s online degree programs are focused on fostering versatile and quick-thinking skills. Their general education courses combine the arts, humanities, religion, and sciences. Online graduates also receive their diplomas along with their peers.
They are known for their Business and Computer Science degrees, but as of late, their Criminal Justice Department is starting to get more recognition. They have a lot of extension offices where online students can physically go to get more materials and assistance.
You can visit them here.
Dallas Baptist University
SACSCOC-accredited Dallas Baptist University offers more than 75 online programs leading to certificate, undergraduate, and graduate degrees. DBU even offers a dual Master’s degree program and an Accelerated Track for a Bachelor’s degree. The online programs the DBU offers can be a purely online experience or a mix of online and on-campus academic activities.
A big chunk of the programs is related to entrepreneurship and Christian studies, but other areas are available, too, like finance and psychology. The Master’s program is much more varied, with a focus on Education and Business, as well as Ministry and Christian Counseling.
All of DBU’s programs were developed with Biblical and Christian values in mind. Discussions about faith will be a regular part of lectures, along with incorporating Bible discussions into courses and activities. It has a very Baptist culture, and the students and faculty are a Baptist majority.
There are no set log-in times, giving students maximum control over their schedules. However, there are activities like a time-sensitive exam that you should take.
DBU is also known for its athletics and its very vibrant and active campus ministry.
For more information, you can visit their website here.
Benedictine University
Benedictine Univeristy’s online school started in 2010, but it already has more accolades than some online schools with twice the history. Plus, it has been recognized by the US News & World Report and accredited by the HLC.
Benedictine is well-known as the online graduate course provider for Business and Healthcare, particularly Nursing programs.
They also have a very active campus ministry, with a lot of activities that strike a great balance between fun and faith. An interesting observation to note is that the courses offered by the online school are a great mix of liberal arts and applied social sciences, which makes the program very valuable to both the student and the employer.
An added bonus is a 10% discount for people who serve or have served in the military.
You can enter their website here.
Mount Vernon Nazarene University
This HLC-accredited Evangelical University is very grounded in faith and intellectual curiosity. MVNU offers a sizeable number of online courses, the majority of which are centered on Business and Marketing. Their online courses are known to be unique, mixing cohort class structures and flexible pacing.
The cohort system magnifies the Christian character of the students and the teacher without any sense of judgment. This makes classes much easier to take.
The University is also very welcoming to the Military, with a lot of assistance offered to those who have served the country well. They have enough facilities and personnel that the talk feels more like an open-table discussion with a short lecture from the start.
On average, there are 16 students to 1 teacher, and the ratio can even go down to 8 students to 1 teacher for the graduate programs.
Here is their website.
What to Consider in a Good Online Christian School
1. Proper accreditation
The online school should have accreditation from proper authorities and should comply with federal and state guidelines. If the online school in question has a physical campus, then this should not be a problem. Make sure that you read or at least familiarize yourself with the “about” or “legal and disclaimers” page on the school’s website.
There are two main types of higher learning accreditation: National accreditation and Regional accreditation. National accreditation is more popular within religiously affiliated schools. However, regionally accredited online Christian schools are considered more reputable than nationally accredited ones.
But this doesn’t imply that national accreditation is inferior.
Each type of accreditation has its own set of standards and benefits. It’s important to weigh them based on your specific educational needs and goals.
Pro Tip: Always consult the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) database or the US Department of Education to ensure that the accrediting agency is recognized and reputable. Many diploma mills have been surfacing, faking “national accreditation.”
2. Culture is grounded in Christian values
Most, if not all, of the online Christian schools offer courses and programs in relation to the Faith and the Bible, but some schools have a much deeper relationship and intellectual thirst for knowledge and the truth. This can be seen not only with the faculty and students but also with the policies of the school itself.
The amount of work in their ministries would be a good measure of how seriously they treat their ministry. Also, the lecturers or teachers should be competent and confident not only with their subject material but also with how they merge their faith into their lectures without compromising any.
This is usually done by taking a look to see if the teacher has signed a Christian doctrinal statement and has the necessary educational level to teach the subject.
3. Strength of Academic capabilities as well as reputation
Core competencies and specialized research can be measured by the quantity and quality of published research papers. Getting a position from any of the professional ranking agencies like the American Council of Trustees and Alumni will also help. Name recognition will also play a part in the making of this list.
These are three primary considerations, but we also factor in cost, number of courses and teachers available, as well as other characteristics.
Online Christian Colleges Accept Those from all Faiths
In general, online Christian colleges offer educational opportunities to students of all religious backgrounds, including those from other faith traditions.
While curricula and resources may be designed from a Christian perspective, most programs value the diversity of the student body and invite everyone to participate in learning.
On the flip side, must you be a Christian to attend a Christian university? No, typically, you do not need to be a Christian to attend a Christian university. Many Christian universities are open to a variety of religious backgrounds and beliefs and promote tolerance and love while honoring the uniqueness of each individual’s faith.
During the application process, however, you may be asked to sign a faith statement that confirms your agreement with the institution’s values.
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