Birmingham Southern College provides a liberal arts education of distinctive quality. The College challenges students to think independently, to examine the arts and sciences aesthetically and critically, and to communicate clearly. It fosters the advancement of scholarship, personal and resourceful learning, and comprehensive advising.

The total educational experience at Birmingham Southern College focuses on individual students and their intellectual and ethical development, and offers opportunities for spiritual and physical well being. The academic program challenges students to understand a range of disciplines and requires the in depth study of one. The College is distinguished by a dedicated faculty, undergraduate scholarship and research, interim term, leadership studies and service learning, cross cultural opportunities, on and off campus mentor relationships, and by graduate education within a liberal arts context.

Birmingham Southern College operates under the auspices of the Alabama West Florida and North Alabama Conferences of the United Methodist Church, with its most responsible service to the Church being to perform its educational mission with distinction.