The Denominational University Question — Do Adventist Colleges Actually Strengthen Faith?

Executive summary

The Adventist church operates 118 tertiary institutions worldwide with 14,249 faculty and 143,925 students. The 2025 AACU Alumni Study — comparing Adventist alumni from Adventist colleges with Adventist alumni from non-Adventist institutions — provides the strongest evidence to date that Adventist higher education significantly strengthens faith. Adventist college alumni reported 2–8x greater spiritual formation outcomes across 31 measures. But important questions about self-selection bias, inst...