A content analysis of college and university mission statements

Mission is central to the self-study process for accreditation by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. Well defined and clearly stated missions are necessary so that institutions can remain true to their basic orientation while strategically responding to external and internal forces. Knowledge gained through this study informs the members of the educational community about how they express their statements of institutional purpose, and may serve as a guide to mission development and the strategic planning process.; This study examined the content of 120 mission statements published by colleges and universities accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. To improve upon the work of earlier researchers, this study (a) adopted content criteria to fit more accurately the educational setting, (b) extended content analysis to include tone and readability measures, (c) used computer analysis in addition to human raters, (d) created word profiles revealing unique words, and (e) increased the validity and reliability of earlier techniques through the comparison of two distributions within the same research sample. This content analysis may serve as a model for researchers who desire to do more than simply count words. Independent human raters were used as interpreters who constructed meanings to support the selection of words for counting and comparison across groups, and computer-generated word profiling served as an objective tool to distinguish unique words in addition to those selected for word counts.; Colleges and universities within this research sample distinguished themselves according to the six major Carnegie Classifications, but when the research sample was considered according to public/sectarian/non-sectarian categories, it also became clear that these same institutions described themselves using descriptors not found in the Carnegie Classification scheme. Public institutions were more likely to reference words such as "access," "opportunity," and "support." Sectarian institutions were more likely to reference words such as "life," "faith," and "values." And non-sectarian institutions were more likely to reference words such as "arts," "sciences," and "society." These missions complemented one another and should remind us that all educational sectors may be necessary to serve the "public good."...