Evaluating Christian mission communication in the written recruitment materials of faith-based degree completion programs

The growth in numbers of degree completion programs (DCPs) in recent years has been particularly pronounced among faith-based liberal arts colleges and universities. These nontraditional off-campus efforts are justified, in part, as a means for extending the mission of the parent institution by promoting Christian-worldview specific education to a market untapped by the main campus. However, degree programs that promote nontraditional attributes and target a nontraditional audience have prompted concerns from more conventional faculty and administrators, as well as external constituencies including accrediting bodies, about the reliability of this claim. The concern is that DCP promotion and facilitation will be guided primarily by a focus on the adult students' vocationally driven educational goals to the exclusion of the historical mission of Christian higher education to provide a faith-integrated educational experience.;The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extent to which Christian Adult Higher Education Association (CAHEA) member institutions communicate their institutional Christian mission to traditional as compared to DCP prospective students through written recruitment materials. For the purpose of this study, the content of institutional Christian mission identified as relevant for communication to both traditional and DCP prospective students included: history, educational philosophy, and institutional strength. An evaluative instrument was organized around these three content areas and included three primary research questions, each with associated sub-questions. An expert panel used the instrument to evaluate the traditional and DCP written recruitment materials of 33 CAHEA member institutions.;The results of this study indicated that CAHEA member institutions exhibited a significantly stronger communication of institutional Christian mission in traditional than in DCP written recruitment materials. The level of Christian mission communication in the traditional materials of any particular institution was not found to be a good predictor of the level of Christian mission communication in the institution's DCP materials. Institutional denomination did not significantly influence the level of communication of Christian mission in either traditional or DCP materials.;This study provides CAHEA with an evaluation of mission communication in the written recruitment materials of its member institutions, facilitating progressive discourse on best practices for marketing of Christian DCPs. The evaluation tool created for this study will be valuable to Christian DCP administrators for determining the extent to which their own written recruitment materials communicate the distinctively Christian mission of their institutions. The resulting evaluation will facilitate the design of DCP promotional materials that are congruent with the overall institution in their expression of mission.