With more than 27,000 students, approximately 140 different degree programs, three campuses and a single vision of growing others, Georgia Southern University is already moving and ready for more. The historic brick streets or moss-dripping oak trees may make our picturesque campuses seem pristine, but there’s a lot of roll-up-your-sleeves work going on here. Research is focused on community impact. Teaching is focused on the students. And the students are focused on their future.

The foundation for this can-do spirit was born on Dec. 1, 1906, when delegates from Statesboro, Georgia, traveled to the DeSoto Hotel in Savannah and offered the winning bid to create the First District Agricultural School to be located in Statesboro. Just 29 years later and only a few blocks away on Bull Street in Savannah, Armstrong Junior College was established at the historic Armstrong House.

Both institutions were created to serve their communities, make them more attractive to businesses and offer better career prospects to their residents. Both schools grew because faculty, staff, donors and partners believed there was something special here that should be expanded. Lives and communities were being transformed as educational investments in southeast Georgia created opportunities for our graduates.

Today, as one University, Georgia Southern is the state’s largest and most comprehensive center of higher education south of I-20. With programs at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels, Georgia Southern is a public Carnegie Doctoral/R2 institution with three vibrant campuses — the Statesboro Campus, the Armstrong Campus in Savannah and the Liberty Campus in Hinesville. Georgia Southern’s nationally accredited academic programs include a heavy dose of real-world work so our graduates are ready from the day they graduate. A unit of the University System of Georgia, the University boasts 300-plus student organizations, outstanding Division I athletics and state-of-the art residence halls and campus facilities.

Culture

Since 1906, the University’s hallmark has been a culture of engagement that bridges theory with practice, extends the learning environment beyond the classroom and promotes student growth and life success. Central to the University’s mission is the faculty’s dedication to excellence in teaching and the development of a fertile learning environment exemplified by a free exchange of ideas, high academic expectations and individual responsibility for academic achievement. Faculty, staff, and students embrace core values of collaboration, academic excellence, discovery and innovation, integrity, openness and inclusion, and sustainability.

Our Vision

People. Purpose. Action: Growing ourselves to grow others.

Our Mission

At Georgia Southern University, our learner-centered culture prepares us to think, lead, teach, and serve. We value collaboration, academic excellence, discovery and innovation, integrity, openness and inclusion, and sustainability. We promote talent and economic development to enhance quality of life through scholarly pursuits, cultural enrichment, student life, and community engagement across distinctive campuses. Our success is measured by the global impact of our students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

Our Values

• Collaboration: Georgia Southern University embraces shared governance, teamwork, and a cooperative spirit that shapes our engagement with students, faculty, staff and communities.
• Academic Excellence: Georgia Southern University academically challenges students, providing them with the knowledge, experiences, and support they need to develop into productive and responsible citizens.
• Discovery and Innovation: Georgia Southern University promotes environments and technologies that encourage and facilitate creative, problem-solving collaborations among students, faculty, staff, and community partners.
• Integrity: Georgia Southern University creates a caring, respectful environment that is deeply committed to ethical decision-making in the spirit of collegiality.
• Openness and Inclusion: Georgia Southern University values the diversity of all people, communities, and disciplines with an unwavering commitment to equity and inclusion.
• Sustainability: Georgia Southern University is a conscientious steward of resources and supports the well-being of students, faculty, staff, and communities.

Inclusive Excellence

Georgia Southern University celebrates diversity in all its forms. 
The center pillar of our new strategic plan says all populations will feel valued and respected, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, national origin, age, sexual orientation or identity, education, or disability. In addition, the University will capitalize on distinctive, unique campus cultures while encouraging strong institutional unity.

Inclusive Excellence is an on-going, collaborative process uniting Georgia Southern students, faculty, staff, administrators and alumni in the work of embedding diversity and inclusiveness throughout University life.