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Academic programs

While attending Bethel College, you will be immersed in a multi-faceted learning environment. At the heart lies the academic program. The daily teaching and learning of the Bethel community is the primary means of attaining our ultimate mission: to prepare you to be an intellectual, cultural and spiritual leader for church and society.

Through Bethel's academic program, you will be exposed to three great educational traditions: that of the liberal arts, of the church and of career preparation. Through your General Education courses, you will gain a broad understanding of the social and natural world with the perspective of the liberal arts and sciences and develop foundational capacities in basic academic skills. Requirements in Bible and religion help to enhance your ethical perspectives, inspire service and integrate intellectual and spiritual values. Focused study in a major field stimulates your intellectual achievement and lays the groundwork for your vocational success.

Common to all these traditions is a powerful sense of purpose. In the words of John Cardinal Newman, writing in The Idea of a University: “If a liberal education be good, it must necessarily be useful, too.” Some programs, like peace, justice and conflict studies or Bible and religion, reflect a theologically distinctive idea of educational purpose. Others, like nursing and social work, are consonant equally with the values of service and licensure for a specific profession. But all courses of study at Bethel prepare you for the world beyond the classroom.

Consistent with its Anabaptist character, Bethel's curriculum provides you with a wide range of individual choices balanced with the maintenance of a learning community. College Issues Colloquy, Basic Issues of Faith and Life and Convocation are all graduation requirements and bring all students together in common educational experiences. The core curriculum is also infused with requirements in Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies and Cross-Cultural Learning. Many departmental or divisional programs are deliberately integrative and interdisciplinary as well.

Finally, the academic program of Bethel College aims at high achievement, believing that the ultimate goal of leadership demands more of you than self-fulfillment or passive citizenship. Bethel expects that the qualities of creativity, discipline and intellectual stewardship infused throughout the academic experience will manifest themselves in academic achievement of a high order, both at Bethel College and in your career after you graduate.