Colleges in North Dakota

Colleges in North Dakota are governed by the State Board of Higher Education. The SBHE sets policies and advocates for the North Dakota University System. It oversees all 11 publicly supported North Dakota schools of higher education, the NDSU Extension Service, the State Forest Service, the Northern Corps Institute and the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute.

Seven citizen members and one student are appointed by the governor to serve four-year terms on the Board. A non-voting faculty advisor is selected by the Council of College Faculties and a non-voting staff advisor is selected by the NDSU State Senate.

The 11 higher education schools in North Dakota include four regional universities, two excellent research institutions and five highly-rated community colleges. Each campus provides a different living and learning experience for students. North Dakota colleges form partnerships with government, business and industry agencies to provide training, stimulate economic growth and conduct research.

The five community colleges in North Dakota are tribal institutes. The names and locations of these two-year institutes are as follows.

• Cankdeska Cikana CC, Fort Totten
• Fort Berthold CC, New Town
• Sitting Bull CC, Fort Yates
• Turtle Mountain CC, Belcourt
• United Tribes Technical College, Bismarck

Additionally, there are four private colleges in North Dakota. The University of Jamestown is a four-year liberal arts college founded by the Presbyterian Church. Rasmussen is a 113 year-old private, for-profit college with campuses in Fargo and Bismarck. It offers Bachelor's and Associate's degrees on-campus and on-line. Trinity Bible College in Ellendale specializes in religion and has small programs in teacher education, business and fine arts. The University of Mary near Bismark is a four-year Catholic college that has satellite campuses in Faro and Bismarck. It is the state's largest four-year degree institute and also has a campus in Rome, Italy.

The University of North Dakota in Fargo is considered to be ranked the highest of all North Dakota schools. Located in Fargo, it offers numerous undergraduate and graduate programs including agricultural fields, natural sciences and math, engineering, pharmacy, education, business, nursing, and liberal and fine arts. The school draws a diverse student body from more than 40 states and around 80 different countries.

Economy

In 2005, the Bureau of Economic Analysis found the North Dakota's gross domestic product to be $24 billion. The state had a per capita income of $33,034 in 2006, ranking it 29th in the nation. This statistic rose to rank the state's per capita income as 17th in the nation in 2010, the largest increase any state experienced in that amount of time. Between 2002 and 2004, the median household income was #39,594 ranking 37th in the nation. The state's unemployment rate is currently the lowest of any US state at 3.1 percent. The unemployment rate has not hit 5 percent since 1987. Per capita growth and a low unemployment rate is due to the state's oil boom. Investments in the technology and service industries have paid off well for North Dakota.

Microsoft employees 1,700 at its campus in Fargo, which is their second largest campus. Amazon.com in Grand Forks has several hundred employees. The Bank of North Dakota in Bismarck is the nation's only state-owned bank.

Agriculture has remained important to the economy, even though less than 10 percent of the population is employed in that sector. The state has around 27,500,000 acres of farmland. This accounts for 90 percent of land, the nation's third largest.

North Dakota is the nation's largest producer of several cereal grains including barley, oats, hard red spring wheat and durum wheat and the second largest producer of buckwheat. The corn belt reaches to the edge of the North Dakota. The southeastern part of the state produces high yields of corn. North Dakota leads the nation in the production of several oilseeds such as flax seeds and safflower and sunflower seeds. Other crops produced in the state are potatoes, dry peas and beans, sugar beets and honey.

Agriculture, technology, service industries and an excellent system of higher education will likely continue to keep the unemployment rate low in North Dakota.