The Four Cornerstones

Educational Philosophy

As an accredited, nonprofit institution dedicated to helping working adults earn their college degrees, we operate under a single-minded mission to make college accessible and affordable to everyone. To ensure that we operate in the best interests of our students, we’re guided by a set of very specific principles we call The Four Cornerstones. Here’s where you can learn more about what the Cornerstones are and, more importantly, how they impact you and your learning experience.

Ensuring Academic Quality

Franklin University expands the term “academic quality” beyond its conventional definition to include elements specific to our nontraditional student body. From the students’ perspective, quality largely equates to the experience they have in the classroom, whether on campus or online.

Franklin’s decisions and resource allocations reflect a commitment to developing high-quality curricula and instruction in professional fields of study. As educators, we are responsible for ensuring an excellent learning experience by providing the planning, resources, and assessment that culminate in courses that contribute to the achievement of program outcomes in support of students’ overall educational and professional goals.

Providing Access to Educational Opportunities

Responding to the needs of students and society, Franklin makes it possible for individuals with a wide variety of prior academic experiences, work-life circumstances, and/or financial constraints to reach their education goals. 

The course formats, admissions policies, and support services enhance educational opportunity and include multiple physical locations, online learning, flexible scheduling, maximized transfer of college credit, affordable tuition, rolling admission, and class-section accommodation.

Adapting to the Needs of Students

Franklin University students are diverse in many respects, including work and life experience. Working adults can find a traditional full-time academic schedule to be restrictive, and therefore their needs are different from those of a traditional student.

Because many of the students at Franklin work full time, the institution demonstrates its ability to respond and adapt to real-world needs by making the attainment of bachelor’s and master’s degrees possible for anyone so motivated.

Franklin promotes student success through a variety of formats, academic resources, and student support services – all designed around the needs of the busy, working adult.  Keeping the needs of students at the forefront of Franklin’s operations is reflected in the following strategic objectives:

  • Make educational opportunities widely accessible through flexible delivery systems and schedules
  • Provide educational programs that will increase students’ employment or promotion potential
  • Offer undergraduate and graduate degree programs, general education, services, and activities to enhance the academic and personal development of students

Therefore, the University is committed to providing what the students need, when they need it. This includes receiving timely responses for admission decisions, transfer credit evaluations, and financial aid eligibility notices, as well as providing multiple options for where and how courses are delivered – in both face-to-face and online formats.

Responding to Changes in Society, Professions and the Business Community

Because it is part of Franklin University’s operating philosophy to anticipate and prepare for the future, the institution continuously engages with internal and external constituencies to gain insight into their educational needs and expectations, now and into the future.

Franklin continually adapts its curricular offerings to meet the needs of current and future students, as well as those of their current and potential employers. Over the past decade, the University has identified significant societal and economic trends such as:

  • A movement toward a knowledge economy focused on the production, management, and use of knowledge for economic gain
  • A dramatic increase in the mobility of labor and capital in world markets
  • An ever-increasing reliance on technology and the resulting interconnection of the global market
  • A trend of American students away from math, science, and technology-related careers, compromising the nation’s ability to compete on a global scale

Consequently, Franklin works to define and to respond to trends by providing students with an education that prepares them to accept the inevitability of change and develop the mindset and skills to adapt to those changes through their careers.