City University of Seattle is a private not-for-profit institution of higher education. Its mission is to change lives for good by offering high quality and relevant lifelong education to anyone with the desire to learn.

Each degree or certificate awarded by City University of Seattle is an affirmation of the knowledge, skill, and academic attainment of the recipient. The University's success as an organization is measured by the accomplishments of its graduates and their individual contributions to society.

Founded in the city of Seattle in 1973 as City College, the name of the institution was changed to City University in 1982 by action of its Board of Governors. Influenced in its early organization by the recommendations of the Carnegie Commission Report and the Seattle 2000 Commission, the University was one of the nation's first to address the needs of the working adult.

The University awards degrees and certificates at the undergraduate and graduate levels in dozens of academic fields, and offers a varied and extensive program of continuing education. It also conducts a world-wide Distance Education program to better serve those who need or prefer to study for their degrees at home.

The dispersion of instructional sites and the use of a variety of delivery systems are consistent with the University's mission, which is to make education convenient to all. As the University has grown, its aims have been accepted all over the world. The idea of education as a lifelong process, unhindered by time, pattern, or location, has gained nationwide recognition, and is today taken for granted. City University of Seattle is proud of the role it has played in the vanguard of this liberating movement.