Southern Wesleyan University is a four-year and graduate Christian college, with its main campus in the town of Central, South Carolina. The university was founded in 1906 by what is now the Wesleyan Church.

The school prepares students for leadership and graduate study in such fields as business, education, religion, music, medicine, law and a variety of civic and social service professions. It offers approximately 35 major areas of study for undergraduates and also offers graduate degrees in the areas of business, education and ministry. The university currently serves approximately 2,400 students. There are more than 600 traditional undergraduates enrolled at the main campus in Central, S.C. In addition, undergraduate and graduate programs are offered in an accelerated format at regional learning centers in Central, Greenville, Columbia, Charleston, North Augusta, Greenwood and Spartanburg.

The school has 10 intercollegiate athletic teams. Three of these—men's soccer and men's and women's basketball—have traveled to other countries on short-term mission trips within the last few years. In 2007, women's basketball and men's baseball teams won their respective National Christian College Athletic Association national championships.

Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college in Middletown, Connecticut, United States founded in 1831. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and sciences, also provides graduate research in many academic disciplines, and grants PhD degrees primarily in the sciences and mathematics. Wesleyan is the second most productive liberal arts college in the United States with respect to the number of undergraduates who go on to earn PhDs in all fields of study.

Founded under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the now secular university was the first institution of higher education to be named after John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. About 20 unrelated colleges and universities were subsequently named after Wesley. Wesleyan, along with Amherst College and Williams College, is a member of the historic Little Three colleges and has long been known as one of the Little Ivies.