History & Mission

History

Franklin College, named for the United States' first and most illustrious ambassador to Europe, was founded in 1969 as a nonprofit, independent, post-secondary institution. Our Charter of Incorporation as a Swiss educational foundation begins:

"Franklin College is a non-profit organization dedicated to a new kind of international education, taking as its cornerstone Benjamin Franklin's vigorous support of a universal, intellectual interchange between the Old World and the New. Affirming the growing necessity for such exchanges between the nations of the Atlantic World bound by a common heritage and civilization, Franklin College aspires to contribute to the awareness of such common ties by bringing together both students and teachers of many nationalities and to foster that kind of interchange conducive to furthering the ideals of Western Man."

Franklin College is a four-year baccalaureate degree-granting institution, accredited in the United States by the Middle States Commission on Higher Learning and in Switzerland by the Swiss University Conference. In the highest tradition of the liberal arts concept, Franklin College advocates that international studies should be an integral part of a college education, as a prelude to, and basis for, a student’s commitment to a major field of study. Franklin College defines higher education from its beginning as the experience of thinking internationally. Our emphasis, both academic and social, on global perspectives is designed to affect the direction and meaning of a student's college experience, life and career.

This commitment to providing courses of study that are international in perspective and cross-cultural in content is the cornerstone of our educational mission. As early as 1973, Franklin College defined this as the International Imperative in education.

The international component at Franklin College is of paramount importance. It is designed to accommodate significant changes in our curriculum in response to shifts in social, political and economic conditions around the world. The result is a singular learning experience gained from cross-cultural, highly responsive global perspectives.

The essence of a Franklin College education is the exposure of our students to cultures other than their own. The College's location, in a vigorous Swiss city that is part of the cultural milieu of northern Italy, assures a constant co-mingling of cultures in a quadri-lingual nation. Students and faculty come to Franklin College from every corner of the globe, further strengthening international study and international experiences.

More facts about Franklin

Mission

The Trustees of Franklin College define its mission as a degree-granting institution in the following statement:

“The mission of Franklin College is to provide a multi-cultural and international academic environment within which students acquire the essential knowledge and critical, creative and analytical abilities necessary to attain success in their chosen careers and to live culturally enriched and rewarding lives.”

A meaningful mission should be reflected in the achievements of the graduates whose education and lives it has shaped. To an extraordinary degree, Franklin’s many alumni have found that the international imperative at Franklin gives special meaning to their careers and lives.