Mission Statements of Private Universities and Public Universities: A Multi-Stage Mixed Analysis

Abstract

Mission statements for the top 50 private universities and the top 50 public universities in the United States were examined to determine the extent to which their themes were similar or dissimilar in nature through use of a multi-stage mixed analysis. In the initial qualitative analysis, 15 themes were determined to be present among the sample: Leadership, Citizenship, Cultural Diversity, Life-long Learning, Excellence in Teaching, Excellence in Research, Creativity, Critical Thinking, Academic Achievement, Collaboration, Community Focus, Technology, Christian Focus and Spiritual Focus. Following the transformation of qualitative data into quantitative data into an inter-respondent matrix, all possible subsets discriminant analysis revealed six themes that differentiated public from private universities. Findings were compared and contrasted with previous studies of mission statements Implications of these findings are discussed.