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Southeastern University (SEU) has announced that more than 14,500 students are enrolled this fall, a new record following 15 years of growth.
“Our enrollment tells the story of a university that continues to grow because we are staying true to our mission and committed to the calling that God has placed on us,” said Kent Ingle, installed as SEU’s 15th president in 2011.
On Aug. 14, The Chronicle of Higher Education ranked SEU as the nation’s fourth-fastest-growing private doctoral university. During Ingle’s tenure as president, the school has added 70 degree programs and athletic offerings and launched the SEU Network, now with more than 200 locations in 42 states.
SEU’s growth comes as many colleges nationwide, including private religious schools, are closing.
Founded in Lakeland in 1946 as Southeastern College, SEU, a conservative Christian school, spent its first six decades focused on degrees for pastors, ministry leaders, and schoolteachers. Fifteen years ago, it had approximately 2,200 students.
On Wednesday, Sept. 2, SEU reported that 3,931 graduate and undergraduate students are enrolled in-person at its 88-acre campus located on Crystal Lake Drive in Lakeland, while 3,005 attend classes through its SEU Network partner locations. Another 1,059 are enrolled online.
SEU estimated more high-school students than last year’s 6,500 will be dual-enrolled in online classes. Final figures, which SEU will report to an annual government survey, are forthcoming.
The university has also attracted significant financial support. In April, the university announced a $16 million scholarship endowment from the family of late pharmaceutical executive Robert Graper, which had close ties to the Assemblies of God, the Pentecostal-charismatic denomination with which SEU is affiliated.
“The two things that have characterized the last ten years are a combination of preparing ourselves with innovation and then receiving the blessings of God,” said Michael Steiner, SEU’s vice president of advancement and innovation.
Training ‘workforce ready’ students
According to the Lakeland Economic Development Council, SEU ranks as the sixth-largest employer in the city, with 1,072 local employees. The university also has developed programs aimed at meeting local workforce needs.
SEU offers a redesigned MBA in Sport Management and a professional pilot degree through Kingsky Flight Academy at Lakeland Linder International Airport. It recently added a 90-credit computer science degree, with a political science associate’s degree also planned.
SEU Provost Aimee Franklin, who was named to the position in June after serving as dean of SEU’s College of Natural and Health Sciences, said the university’s associate degree in nursing was designed with leaders at Lakeland Regional Health.
“We asked them, ‘What are the workforce needs? Because we don’t want you to have to retrain our graduates,’” said Franklin.
Students in the two-year program complete prerequisite courses online, then attend simulation labs and clinical rotations during evenings and weekends, Franklin said.
“I think about the working parent who always wanted to be a nurse, but couldn’t afford to quit their job,” she said. “We designed this program to fit in with a variety of life circumstances.”
Growing reach, underlying financial challenges
The SEU Network has been central to the school’s expansion, partnering primarily with evangelical megachurches, businesses, and nonprofits to create micro-campuses, pairing online courses with in-person internships.
SEU charges $10,170 annually for online classes, while locations add a “site fee” based on the benefits offered. In a June 9 article, The Chronicle of Higher Education called the SEU Network an “inventive” growth strategy.
One SEU Network partner, Elevation Church in Charlotte, N.C., charges $20,000 annually, including room and board. Steiner said its higher price is aligned with its amenities: “It’s their math,” he said.
In December 2025, SEU received a $10 million grant from Lilly’s Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative, restricted funding for the Kingdom Alliance for Higher Education, a training program and “playbook” for Christian colleges to replicate SEU’s network model.
“It’s an infrastructure where other schools can access the innovations we’ve pioneered,” said Steiner. “They can build their own network, so we can see the kingdom of God grow.”
Despite the recent influx of major grants and endowments, SEU’s larger financial picture is less clear — with recent tax filings showing $80.4 million in long-term debt. The school plans to launch a new five-year strategic plan in 2027, said a spokesperson for SEU, adding that “retiring all of the long-term debt” is a part of it.
Expanding and honing athletics
Over the past 15 years, the school has also added 10 collegiate sports, opened a 3,500-seat football stadium, and won the Commissioner’s Cup of the Sun Conference, SEU’s league within the NAIA, four times.
SEU Athletics Director Drew Watson, noting enrolled athletes had a collective 3.19 GPA last year, said they don’t field a new sport “just to put heads in beds.”
“When we roll out a new program, our leadership allocates funds for scholarships, operations, and personnel to set it up for success,” Watson said.
Those same leaders aren’t afraid of making changes when ideas don’t work. This summer, SEU Athletics ended its eSports program only a few years after it was launched in 2019. “All of our programs, whether it’s basketball, football, or wrestling, need to be driving enrollment — and eSports was not bringing in new students,” said Watson.
New campus in downtown Winter Haven
This spring, SEU formally opened a second local campus at 250 Magnolia Avenue SW in downtown Winter Haven.
Local developer Six/Ten Corp. approached several universities about leasing space in downtown Winter Haven, but other schools said establishing a campus could take five or six years, said advisor Rick Baker.
By contrast, SEU signed a lease within six months of Six/Ten presenting the proposal, beginning operations last fall ahead of the campus’s formal opening in April. “SEU has minimal bureaucracy on making decisions like this, especially when it comes to academic programming,” said Steiner.
SEU also recently began leasing office space at 101 W. Main Street in downtown Lakeland.
Steiner said grants helped facilitate opening the Winter Haven campus but added SEU “doesn’t have some master grand plan, like we’re playing Monopoly and buying up all these properties.”
Faith-driven identity, with a side of politics
“The brand of the university has really exploded in the last three years, and a lot of that has to do with SEU Worship putting our school on a national stage,” said Steiner.
Comprising alumni and some students, SEU Worship’s songs have generated over 500 million streams. After performing last fall at the Gospel Music Association Dove Awards in Nashville, SEU Worship is nominated in two categories this year.
“As a Pentecostal-charismatic school, we believe God can move at any time and does move all the time. We choose to be unapologetically who God has called us to be,” Steiner said.
SEU students must attend weekly chapel, choosing between a high-energy pop-rock worship gathering or a smaller prayer meeting. The crowdsourced review site Niche ranks SEU as Florida’s second-most-conservative college; users give its party scene a C grade.
The school’s code of conduct prohibits tobacco use, “involvement with pornography,” or alcohol use “except for communion.” Franklin said the dry-campus and non-coed housing policies have remained since she was a student.
The university’s conservative identity also has a political dimension.
In December 2025, Karoline Leavitt, Press Secretary under President Trump, addressed SEU graduates. On Apr. 24, 2026, Florida gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds, a Republican, spoke at the school’s spring commencement.
“We invite speakers to campus because of what they offer our students spiritually and in leadership, not to send a political message,” Ingle said in a statement. He added that SEU aims to help students engage in public policy “through a biblical worldview.”
Franklin said misperceptions about the school abound, even locally.
She invited anyone who’s curious to “take a tour of campus or audit a class,” adding, “What you’ll see is that SEU is a real educational institution committed to academic values.”
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