Our Values

Our values shape who we are and where we are going next. These values include: Academic Excellence, Collaboration, Community, Inclusion, Innovation, Sustainability

What Guides Us

The University's mission focuses our success in three areas:

Our People

Who We Are. We are a diverse community of scholars, learners, partners and leaders dedicated to a common cause: the pursuit of knowledge.

Our Programs

What We Do. Our initiatives and operations fuel opportunities of the highest quality in three key areas: academic excellence, research and scholarship, and community service.

Our Purpose

The Difference We Make. We improve lives and communities—at every scale—by creating knowledge and leveraging our expertise to tackle some of society’s greatest and most pressing challenges.

Mission and Vision

The University's mission is to:

provide high-quality undergraduate programs in the arts and sciences and professional fields, with emphasis upon those of special benefit to the citizens of Pennsylvania;
offer superior graduate programs in the arts and sciences and the professions that respond to the needs of Pennsylvania, as well as to the broader needs of the nation and the world;
engage in research, artistic, and scholarly activities that advance learning through the extension of the frontiers of knowledge and creative endeavor;
cooperate with industrial and governmental institutions to transfer knowledge in science, technology, and health care;
offer continuing education programs adapted to the personal enrichment, professional upgrading, and career advancement interests and needs of adult Pennsylvanians; and
make available to local communities and public agencies the expertise of the University in ways that are consistent with the primary teaching and research functions and contribute to social, intellectual, and economic development in the Commonwealth, the nation, and the world.

Progress never comes from standing still.