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Former names | Swedish Bible Institute of Chicago (1897–1925) Norwegian-Danish Bible Institute and Academy (1910–????) Swedish Evangelical Free Church Bible Institute and Seminary (1925–1949) Trinity Seminary and Bible Institute (????–1949) Trinity Seminary and Bible College (1949–1961) Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Trinity College (1961–1995) |
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| Motto | Entrusted with the Gospel |
| Type | Private (includesSeminary andLaw School) |
| Established | 1897[1] |
Religious affiliation | Evangelical Free Church of America |
| President | David W. Pao (interim) |
| Students | 852 (2024)[2] |
| Undergraduates | 140 (2024)[2] |
| Address | 2065 Half Day Road Bannockburn, IL 60015 ,,,U.S.[3] |
| Campus | Suburban[1], 111 acres (45 ha) |
| Colors | Blue & White |
| Website | www |
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Trinity International University (TIU) is anevangelicalChristian university headquartered inBannockburn, Illinois.[3] It comprises TrinityCollege, a theologicalseminary (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School), and alaw school (Trinity Law School which is located inSanta Ana, California).[4] The university also maintains campuses inNorth Lauderdale, Florida, andMiami, Florida. TIU is the only university affiliated withEvangelical Free Church of America in the United States and enrolls 1,242 students. On February 17, 2023, TIU announced it was moving the undergraduate program to online modalities only and closed the residential campus at the end of the Spring 2023 semester.[5][6] The online undergraduate program closed at the end of the Spring 2024 semester.
In April 2025, it was announced that the divinity school would merge with Trinity Western University and cease operations at the Bannockburn campus, while the rest of the university would continue to operate independently.[7][8] After this change, the law school and an undergraduate program jointly operated with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections will remain the main operations of TIU.[9]
Tracing its roots to 1897, TIU formed in the late 1940s as the result of a merger of two schools:
By 1949, the Minneapolis-based school moved to Chicago and the unified schools became known asTrinity Seminary and Bible College. In 1961, the school moved to a new campus inBannockburn, Illinois, and a year later was renamedTrinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) andTrinity College. The school grew from an enrollment of 51 in 1961 to 1,400 in 1990. In 1995, TEDS became part ofTrinity International University, along with Trinity College in Deerfield, Illinois, and Trinity College in Miami, (formerlyMiami Christian College which was obtained through a merger of the two institutions). In 1997, Trinity Law School, located in Santa Ana, California, was incorporated into Trinity International University, and the Trinity Graduate School was founded.
In 2014,David S. Dockery was elected unanimously as the 15th president of Trinity. He was inaugurated in October of that year.[10]Nicholas Perrin was elected as the 16th president in June 2019.[11] Kevin Kompelien succeeded Perrin as president on April 1, 2024.[12] On July 1, 2025, David W. Pao was named interim president to serve for a year of transition.[13]
Trinity Graduate School closed in 2024, along with the academic programs at TIU-Florida. Trinity College Online closed in May 2025. The undergraduate program for prisoners in Fox Lake, Wisconsin, remains open. Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Trinity Law School are operational.
Trinity International University isaccredited by theHigher Learning Commission.[14][15] The divinity school is also programmatically accredited by theCommission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS).[16]
TIU's law school, located inSanta Ana, California, isaccredited by the Committee of Bar Examiners (CBE) of theState Bar of California (CALBAR).[17] The normative nationwide USDE- and CHEA-approved accreditor of law schools is theAmerican Bar Association (ABA). Within the state of California, though, law schools are also accredited by CALBAR CBE, which is neither USDE- or CHEA-approved. Graduates of non-ABA accredited programs are not recognized outside of the state of California.[18] TIU's Trinity Law School (Santa Ana campus only) is also included as part of TIU's regional accreditation by the USDE- and CHEA-approved NCA-HLC.[14]
Trinity International University is exempt[19] from the need to be approved to operate in Illinois by theIllinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE), which lists it as a "private NFP (not-for-profit) institution".[20] Its educational programs forK-12 teachers are approved by theIllinois State Board of Education (ISBE)[21] so that TIU's graduates from said programs may obtain state-issued teaching credentials. TIU is, further, approved by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) (formerly the Illinois State Scholarship Commission (ISSC))[22] Monetary Award Program (MAP) so that TIU's students may receive Illinois educational grants and scholarships.[23]
Prior to 2003, TIU's athletic trainer program was accredited by theCommission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP); however in 2003 the accreditation of such programs was taken over by the Joint Review Committee on Athletic Training (JRC-AT); and in 2006 JRC-AT became theCommittee for Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE). TIU's undergraduate athletic training educational program[24] claims CAATE accreditation on its website.
TIU is also a member of theCouncil for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU),[25] theChristian College Consortium (CCC), and the Christian Adult Higher Education Association (CAHEA).[26]
The Trinity International athletic teams were called the Trojans.[27] Prior to the move to an all-online undergraduate academic format in 2023, the university was a member of theNational Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in theChicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) for most of its sports from 1996–97 until its move after 2022–23; while its football program competed in the Mideast League of theMid-States Football Association (MSFA).[27] They were also a member of theNational Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA), primarily competing as an independent in the North Central Region of the Division I level.
Trinity International competed in nine intercollegiate varsity sports. Men's sports included baseball, basketball, football, soccer and volleyball. Women's sports included basketball, soccer, softball and volleyball.[28]
In 2022, women's volleyball claimed the NCCAA D1 National Championship, making the title a program first and last.
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42°11′43.0″N87°52′49.8″W / 42.195278°N 87.880500°W /42.195278; -87.880500
