Monmouth is a four-year college offering the bachelor of arts degree and is fully accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association, 312-263-0456.
The program of the department of education is approved by the Illinois State Certification Board, 100 North First St., Springfield, IL 62777-0001, 217-782-2805.
Recognizing that no intellectual process is value free, Monmouth College is committed to the values and ecumenical perspective of the Christian faith and encourages its members to explore the implications of those values for their lives and the world. While the College chooses, quite deliberately, to maintain its affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), it welcomes students of all faiths.
"The oldest continuous mission of the Presbyterian Church in the United States beyond the congregation is our mission in higher education." - 203rd General Assembly Minutes, 1991
In 1726 a Presbyterian minister named
William Tennent Sr. gathered students into a log house in Neshaminy, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. So began a Presbyterian Church mission in higher education that has continued uninterrupted for over a quarter of a millennium.
Monmouth College began as an academy founded by the Associate Reformed Presbytery of Illinois in 1853. Two years later, the Second Associate Reformed Presbyterian Synod of Illinois decided to raise the academy to the rank of a college. In 1859, following the merger of the Associate and Associate Reformed churches, control of the college was vested in the United Presbyterian Synod.
In 1858 Monmouth College became home to the United Presbyterian Theological Seminary of the Northwest, which was removed to Xenia, Ohio, in 1874. Today, although its governance is no longer under the control of the church, Monmouth College retains a close affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) continues its commitment to higher education by providing a quality experience to more than 140,000 students at 72 PC (U.S.A.) related schools, colleges and universities across the country.
To increase the range of opportunities for its members while retaining the advantages of smallness, Monmouth and thirteen other colleges similar in kind and purpose compose a consortium, the
Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM).
These colleges, located in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin as well as in Illinois, together offer programs which singly they could not. These provide opportunities, described in the section titled
Off-Campus Study, for members of the College to engage in a remarkable range of off-campus study projects, both in this country and overseas, for a semester or an academic year.