Across higher education, we face headwinds: demographic shifts, changing student expectations, and increasing demands to demonstrate measurable outcomes. At Bryant University, our strategy has been unapologetically fueled by our obsession with student success.
And it’s paid off. This fall, Bryant welcomed the largest first-year class in our 162-year history.
Our growth is a product of strategically aligned investments: matching resources to desired outcomes that create value for students and employers. At Bryant, that alignment builds on a long tradition of integrating business with liberal arts and sciences and extends through every new investment in facilities, partnerships, and programs, including the integration of artificial intelligence into our curriculum.
Investing in Success
Bryant’s Smithfield campus has transformed.
Last fall, we opened the Business Entrepreneurship Leadership Center (BELC), a 250,000-square-foot hub for applied learning and cross-disciplinary collaboration and the new home of Bryant’s College of Business. The BELC houses active learning labs for artificial intelligence, data analytics, financial markets, and sales, as well as the Ellen Wilson Leadership Center.
This fall, the Sprague Center for Entrepreneurship and Design Thinking opened in the BELC with a makerspace and startup incubator, allowing students to move ideas from concept to venture while working alongside industry partners.
Another new addition, the Psychology Research Center provides our faculty and students, including our first Doctor of Clinical Psychology class, an engaging environment with classrooms and technology for clinical training and behavioral science research.
The investments reach beyond academics. The new Navigant Credit Union Field House expands athletic opportunities and campus life. The reimagined Salmanson Dining Hall offers an inviting, nourishing, and accessible gathering space at the heart of campus. The Puishys Residence Complex, which welcomed its first residents this September, provides a forward-thinking model of student living centered on wellbeing.
These are not amenities; they are infrastructure for impact. Every project begins with one question: How will this advance student success?
Measuring What Matters
As our campus has grown, so has Bryant’s position in national rankings.
Rankings don’t drive our decisions, but they offer external validation. Bryant ranks in the top 1 percent nationally for long-term ROI (Georgetown CEW) and among the top five universities in the north (U.S. News & World Report). LinkedIn lists Bryant among the top five U.S. institutions for internships and recruiter demand and named the university the 38th best college in the nation overall. The Wall Street Journal placed Bryant among its top 100 universities in the country.
The data tell a consistent story. When an institution focuses on student outcomes and success, recognition and reputation follow.
Our Competitive Advantage
All of this growth, on campus and in reputation, draws on our strong community and passion, yes obsession, for student success.
On campus, faculty innovate in their teaching and research, pushing the institution forward. Corporate and community partners share expertise and resources, valuing Bryant as a leading provider of talent and expertise and a driver of regional vitality.
Many of our 50,000-plus global alumni remain deeply engaged, not merely as benefactors, but as mentors, connectors, and catalysts for new initiatives. Our Global Advisory Council brings together alumni leaders from nearly 20 countries across five continents. This council is advising Bryant on global partnerships, experiential learning, and ways to expand our reach.
When our stakeholders act in concert with a focus on student success broadly defined, the results are transformative: a record-breaking incoming class, a campus alive with new facilities and opportunities, and a reputation that continues to rise nationally and globally.
Our students chose Bryant because of the strength of a community that is invested in their future and confident in its own.
Growth, at its best, is the product of purpose and strong, passionate execution. When institutions focus on student success — supported by data, driven by mission, and activated by community — the results compound. That’s the lesson of Bryant’s recent years.
—Ross Gittell, Ph.D.
President, Bryant University