Small colleges and universities may be defined in several ways, but the most common is undergraduate student enrollment. The federal Career Navigator website lists 450 colleges that combine at least a four-year bachelor's degree and a student enrollment of under 300. Only eight of these are public schools, so most small schools belong to an organization for private colleges. Many of these are affiliated with a religious denomination and are members of a denominational body.
The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) is an umbrella organization for independent educational institutions. The organization represents independent educators to policymakers in government, advising and advocating on issues such as student aid, the regulatory environment and taxation. The group monitors trends in education, conducts research and analysis on education issues, provides a mechanism for schools to coordinate and interact, and keeps its member schools advised of any new legislation or changes to government regulation that may affect their operation. In recent election years NAICU has organized voter registration drives among students and staff of its member schools.
The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) was founded in 1956. It is the primary organization of small and midsize liberal arts colleges across the country, citing over 600 members on its website. The CIC does not engage in lobbying. Instead it supports its member schools with workshops, seminars and other programs to improve their institutions. These focus on a variety of factors that concern colleges, including educational quality, promotional visibility and administrative efficiency. The CIC has agreements in place to work cooperatively with NAICU and the Foundation for Independent Higher Education to jointly advance the interests of their members.
The Foundation for Independent Higher Education (FIHE) is the national umbrella group of the individual states' fund-raising organizations for independent education. The foundation works to bring together corporate, private and institutional financial support for private educators, allowing small schools to compete successfully with large schools for financial investment. FIHE also plays a role in conveying the future needs of its financial partners to the member schools, helping them train their students to build careers in sectors where demand will be high. In 2005, FIHE launched a signature initiative called First Opportunity Partners, with the goal of helping low-income, minority and other disadvantaged students get their first opportunity at higher education.