Franciscan University of Steubenville

Franciscan University of Steubenville is no ordinary university, and a Franciscan education is no ordinary education. Rather, it’s an education as rigorous and demanding as it is faithful—an education that challenges you intellectually, forms you professionally, and feeds you spiritually.

Founded in 1946 by Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular, Franciscan University integrates strong academic programs with a rich Catholic environment. The result? An extraordinary education that draws more than 2,400 students from all 50 states and 15 foreign countries.

Franciscan University’s goal is to educate and form men and women of hope to be a transforming presence in the Church and the world. Our success in this has led to national recognition including Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine, U.S. News & World Report, Barron’s Best Buys in College Education, and The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College, which characterized Franciscan as “joyfully Catholic.”

Rigorous Academics

While at Franciscan, you can choose from more than 40 undergraduate and 8 graduate degree programs.

Our Business, Education, Nursing, Philosophy, and Theology Programs continue to be among the most popular in the curriculum, with the Education Department serving more than 200 majors and our nursing graduates regularly achieving scores above state and national levels on their state board exams.

Our Science and Pre-Med Programs likewise produce exemplary graduates, thanks in large part to our modern 43,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art science facility and extensive undergraduate research opportunities, including partnerships with Harvard University and AbbVie—a leading research-based pharmaceutical company.

Franciscan University is best known for its Theology Program, which has earned an international reputation for both its strength and fidelity. Grounded in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, the program attracts more undergraduate theology majors than any other Catholic university or college in the country.

Changes to Franciscan’s academic offerings include a new engineering dual degree program, which recently joined Franciscan’s outstanding science programs. As an engineering student, you’ll complete the first part of your degree in Franciscan University’s excellent, faith-filled Catholic learning community, earning either an associate degree, a BA, or a BS, and then complete your degree at one of our engineering partner schools: the University of Notre Dame, Gannon University, or the University of Dayton.

Likewise, as part of our ongoing commitment to academic excellence, Franciscan University adopted a new liberal arts core curriculum in 2013 that is based on the Western intellectual tradition, the Franciscan educational heritage, and the University’s Catholic mission. Through 40-plus credit hours of course work, you’ll have the opportunity, regardless of your major, to learn from some of the greatest thinkers of the past 2,500 years. The new core equips you to better engage in the issues that weigh upon our world today, preparing your head and your heart for the tasks of faithful citizenship—for fruitful and effective engagement in the public square.

Our Honors Program builds on the Catholic Core, providing top students with an unparalleled intellectual challenge that can be integrated into any course of study and that broadens and deepens their understanding both of the history and culture of Western Civilization, as well as the role of the Catholic Church in shaping that civilization.

Whatever you study, at Franciscan you will be taught by first-class teachers and world-class scholars including four winners of the prestigious Fulbright Grant. Your professors are dedicated to integrating faith and reason in the classroom and preparing you well for the next phase of your life. That’s one of the reasons why more than 90 percent of Franciscan graduates successfully enter employment, further education, the priesthood, or religious life within one year of graduation.

Beyond the Classroom

Franciscan University’s exciting study abroad program in Gaming, Austria, brings more than 150 students each semester to study and live in a restored medieval monastery in the foothills of the Austrian Alps. From there, you can travel to Rome, Assisi, Paris, Geneva, Lourdes, Munich—any of the historic sites and Catholic shrines of Europe.

Students also have the opportunity to spend a summer in Avila, Spain, studying at the Institute of Spanish Language and Culture at the Catholic University of Avila; spend a semester at Oxford through the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies; or craft their own study abroad program.

For men discerning the priesthood, Franciscan also offers a Priestly Discernment Program that prepares men for major seminary as they prayerfully seek God’s will for their future vocation. Over the last six years, more than 70 Franciscan graduates who discerned and prepared for the priesthood through the University’s Priestly Discernment Program have entered seminary or a religious order.

Faith households—small groups of male or female students—provide you with positive peer support and a family-like atmosphere. Very Catholic and joyfully Franciscan, each household has its own patron saint or spiritual devotion and guidance from a faculty, staff, or alumni advisor.

Confession, daily Mass, round-the-clock eucharistic adoration, Works of Mercy, pro-life outreaches, and Festivals of Praise are a few other ways students seek ongoing personal conversion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Some 300 students annually participate in Spring Break missions, traveling to five countries and seven U.S. cities, bringing the light of Christ to homeless shelters, orphanages, and remote jungle villages.

Lastly, Franciscan offers NCAA Division III sports and an intensely competitive intramural athletics program. Franciscan fields seven men’s intercollegiate teams—Basketball, Soccer, Lacrosse, Rugby, Track & Field, Tennis, and Cross Country—and nine women’s intercollegiate teams—Basketball, Soccer, Lacrosse, Softball, Track and Field, Tennis, Cross Country, Swimming and Diving, and Volleyball.

Proven Success

When you graduate, you will join a truly distinguished family of alumni who bring the light of Christ to the world as bishops, priests, sisters, teachers, entrepreneurs, doctors, pro-life leaders, theologians, and professionals in numerous fields.

Nate Pollock ’99, a Notre Dame Law School grad and an attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, recently spoke about his Franciscan University education, saying,

“My classes put me in contact with the richness of the Catholic intellectual tradition, my professors challenged me to think in ways that I had not thought before, and my friends talked about the ideas of theologians and philosophers as matters profoundly relevant to life. In this environment, the spirit of wisdom and understanding was awakened in my soul.”

As you immerse yourself in the riches of a Franciscan University education, may you grow in wisdom and understanding as you become the person God made you to be and pursue a life of excellence.

Franciscan University is Academically Excellent and Passionately Catholic.