American Indian Higher Education Consortium - Mission Statement

Mission Statement

The American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), since 1972, has been the collective spirit and voice of our nation’s Tribal Colleges and Universities, advocating on behalf of individual institutions of higher education that are defined and controlled by their respective tribal nations. AIHEC’s mission is to nurture, advocate, and protect American Indian history, culture, art, and language, and the legal and human rights of American Indian people to their own sense of identity and heritage through:

1. assisting Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) in maintaining standards of high quality education, developing an accrediting body for American Indian-serving post-secondary institutions, and reaching out to other national education organizations;
2. promoting and advocating for the development of new TCUs;
3. promoting policy, legislation, regulations at the national level to strengthen American Indian higher education and advocating for TCUs in Congress and with the federal government;
4. providing technical assistance to member institutions;
5. promoting public and private opportunities for TCUs in areas critical to success in the 21st century, including science and information technology, agriculture and natural resources use, pre-kindergarten through grade-12 linkages, international outreach, and leadership development.