Milligan University

Milligan is a Christ-centered liberal arts university in Johnson City, Tennessee, boasting a close-knit community, 355-acre picturesque campus, and over 100 majors, minors and other degree offerings.

For over 150 years, Milligan has educated men and women to lead and to serve. Our commitment to Christ-centered liberal arts education has led Milligan to become a growing, well-respected liberal arts institution. Because of our emphasis on scholarship, community, and faith, students come from all over the world to experience our distinctively different approach to higher education.

Consistently recognized for quality and value, Milligan is ranked at No. 10 among “Best Regional Universities” in the South by U.S. News and World Report and at No. 2 among “Best Value Schools.”

As a Christian liberal arts university, Milligan University seeks to honor God by educating men and women to be servant‑leaders.

Milligan University defines servant-leadership as a set of dispositions that models, inspires, and advances a shared vision through a commitment to serving others and intentional self-sacrifice rooted in Christian community. 

Three intertwined spheres form the core values of Milligan’s educational and co-curricular experiences: Scholarship, Community, and Faith. The values, knowledge, and skills that reside at the intersection of these three spheres form the effective servant-leader.

Scholarship

Scholarship is a form of inquiry that stresses the techniques of observation, study, analysis, experimentation and recording in the acquisition, creation, and application of knowledge. Milligan students are led to develop a respect and enthusiasm for sound scholarship and to seek it with diligence and perseverance.  The acquisition, creation and application of knowledge are not ends in themselves.  These activities are means in pursuit of the abundant life that Jesus promised those who follow him as Savior and Lord (John 10:10).

Community

Christian community offers its members a dynamic and supportive environment in which students join faculty and staff, supported by alumni and others, in exploring and practicing the personal and communal dimensions of individual and corporate responsibility under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  This responsibility flows from the stewardship of life and resources rooted in the teachings of the Christian scriptures and focuses on service to humanity to the glory of God.  Such a high calling can be maintained and pursued only within a community in which servant-leadership is a way of living.

Faith

Faith is the conviction that God exists and has spoken definitively, revealing the glory of His nature and His will for humankind through the person of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-5). More than simple assent to a set of doctrines or the tenets of a tradition, faith finds its expression in a life of discipleship in which the believer, taking Christ as both teacher and example, learns from Him how to live.  This life of faithful obedience is meant to be pursued alongside others in community, in response to God’s redemptive action, and to reflect the present and coming Kingdom of God, the essence of which is servanthood.

Institutional Outcomes

Just as scholarship, community, and faith undergird the Milligan educational experience, they also frame the intended institutional outcomes:

IN SCHOLARSHIP:

Milligan graduates will demonstrate the ability to acquire, create, and apply knowledge through sound scholarship.

IN COMMUNITY:

Milligan graduates will demonstrate the skills and attributes needed to assume personal responsibility in society and engage culture within the context of Christian community.

IN FAITH:

Milligan graduates will demonstrate a positive, personal Christian faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior with a commitment to follow the teachings of the Christian scriptures in personal, professional, and social ethics.

Academic and co-curricular programs, educational support services, and administrative support services endeavor to support Milligan University’s institutional outcomes as listed above within their unique context. To this end, each academic program establishes specific student learning outcomes and support areas establish student-centered outcomes that serve the larger institutional outcomes.