Across the United States, students and their families are questioning the value of higher education. They want to know whether a college education will prepare graduates for meaningful work, financial stability, and a solid future. These questions are understandable, especially given the cost of higher education.
At PBA, we welcome those questions. They give us an opportunity to speak clearly about the purpose of higher education. Colleges and universities should not only prepare students for their careers, but also give them knowledge and wisdom, a sense of purpose, and a desire to serve. We prepare students not just for employment, but for a life of impact.
The Criticality of Christian Higher Education
Christian higher education does not separate career readiness from character. It is about the development of the whole person.
A university degree earned at a Christian college or university is more than information—it is about formation and transformation. We want students to grow in faith, develop integrity, think clearly, and understand that their gifts can make a meaningful difference in this world. Christian higher education also encourages students to ask deeper questions. What is true? What does it mean to lead well? What does it mean to love my neighbor? How can my work serve a purpose beyond personal success?
Every professional discipline raises moral and spiritual questions. In health care, we ask how to care for the whole person. In business, we consider how to lead with honesty and integrity. In education, we ask how to teach with patience and hope. In science, we question how discovery can serve creation and human flourishing. In the arts, we ask how beauty, creativity, and truth can reflect or shape the human experience.
Christian higher education does not ask students to choose between serious scholarship and sincere faith. It invites them to bring both to the table. That is our strength.
How Christian Colleges Facilitate Purpose, Belonging, and Community
Nationally, higher education is undergoing a season of change. The number of U.S. high school graduates was projected to peak in 2025, followed by a steady decline in the years ahead. Private institutions are also facing pressure. Recent National Student Clearinghouse data showed that undergraduate enrollment at private four-year nonprofit institutions declined in fall 2025, even as overall postsecondary enrollment increased.
Yet Christian higher education continues to show signs of resilience. Recent analysis of federal enrollment data showed growth across Christian higher education from fall 2023 to fall 2024, including growth among Protestant institutions. At PBA, we have experienced this resilience firsthand. In fall 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, PBA welcomed its largest incoming class in the university’s 57-year history. These numbers cannot be attributed to any success formula. The key to the enrollment buoyancy that Christian higher education is seeing is connected directly to the desires of students and their parents—an education that combines academic quality with strong faith. The outcome is a life of purpose, connected to Christian community.
In our Christian institutions, this kind of formation happens with intentionality. It happens in smaller classroom sizes, where faculty know their students by name and care about their academic and spiritual growth. It happens in mentoring relationships, in chapel, in labs, on athletic teams, in service opportunities, and in conversations that continue long after classes end. These are the factors that help students see their lives and vocations as part of The Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20). We are not simply preparing students to earn degrees, build careers, and use their skills well. As important as those things are, we are preparing them to understand that God calls His people into places and spaces where He can use them for His purposes.
Christian higher education institutions across the country are uniquely positioned to offer this kind of authentic community. We educate students in a way that honors Christ, strengthens the mind, shapes the heart, and prepares graduates to serve and fulfill the Great Commission. This is not a retreat from the world, but what I like to call a preparation for faithful engagement with the world. To love others and shine the light of Christ no matter where graduates go, who they meet, or where they work. We want students to see work not merely as a job, but as a calling.
That kind of education is not only relevant. It is needed now.
