Mission Statement:

Saint Joseph's University is a Catholic and Jesuit university that instills in each member of its academic community: a love of learning and of the highest intellectual and professional achievement; moral discernment reflecting Christian values; and a transforming commitment to social justice. Saint Joseph's is a private Independent and Comprehensive university.

The defining element of Saint Joseph's intellectual tradition experienced by all of its undergraduate students is its strong and integrative core curriculum in the liberal arts that informs their study of particular disciplines. While remaining true to that humane and formative tradition, Saint Joseph's now embraces the challenge of excellence in graduate education in both the arts and sciences and in business. Our understanding of the centuries old Jesuit educational vision of "concern for the individual student" (cura personalis) establishes effective and rigorous teaching and learning as a primary value. Since teaching and learning in the modern academic context require research at both the undergraduate and graduate level, the University cultivates, in students and faculty, generative scholarship that embodies free and open inquiry, and provokes imaginative thinking, aesthetic appreciation, and precise communication. As a necessary complement to intellectual achievement, we seek to illuminate the affective and ethical dimension in learning within the various disciplines at every level. Cura personalis also calls for the fullest development of the individual student's potential both inside and outside the classroom.