Contents
North Dakota has the smallest four-year sector in this set — fourteen institutions in total — and the most striking tribal college presence. Four of the state's four-year institutions are tribally controlled land-grant colleges serving specific nations: Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish at New Town, Sitting Bull at Fort Yates, Turtle Mountain at Belcourt, and United Tribes Technical College at Bismarck. That is a higher proportion than any other state in the Midwest.
The rest of the public sector is a single statewide system covering the two research universities at Fargo and Grand Forks plus four regional universities. The private sector is very small.
What this list covers
- 14 four-year degree-granting institutions with a physical campus in North Dakota: 8 public, 5 private nonprofit, 1 for-profit.
- Included: any institution the federal IPEDS directory records as active, degree-granting, at the four-year level, and awarding a bachelor's degree or higher. That covers universities, liberal arts colleges, seminaries, art and music conservatories, health-professions schools, and graduate-only institutions.
- Excluded: community and technical colleges, and any institution whose highest award is an associate degree or a certificate. Two-year institutions are covered on the Ohio page only — see Ohio colleges for the reasoning.
- Excluded: system and administrative offices that hold their own IPEDS identifier but enrol no students.
- This is a directory, not a ranking. No tuition, fee, or aid figure appears on this page. Verify anything here against the institution's own site before you act on it.
Four-year degree-granting institutions
| Institution | City | Control | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dickinson State University | Dickinson | Public | Baccalaureate, diverse fields |
| Mayville State University | Mayville | Public | Baccalaureate, diverse fields |
| Minot State University | Minot | Public | Master's university |
| North Dakota State University | Fargo | Public | Land-grant; Doctoral, very high research |
| Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College | New Town | Public | Tribal college; Land-grant |
| Rasmussen University-North Dakota | Fargo | For-profit | Baccalaureate/associate's |
| Sitting Bull College | Fort Yates | Public | Tribal college; Land-grant |
| Trinity Bible College and Graduate School | Ellendale | Private nonprofit | Faith-related |
| Turtle Mountain Community College | Belcourt | Private nonprofit | Tribal college; Land-grant |
| United Tribes Technical College | Bismarck | Private nonprofit | Tribal college; Land-grant |
| University of Jamestown | Jamestown | Private nonprofit | Master's university |
| University of Mary | Bismarck | Private nonprofit | Doctoral/professional |
| University of North Dakota | Grand Forks | Public | Doctoral, high research |
| Valley City State University | Valley City | Public | Baccalaureate, diverse fields |
Public university systems
IPEDS records one statewide public system holding six of the state's public four-year institutions. The tribal colleges are federally chartered and separately governed.
North Dakota University System
- Dickinson State University
- Mayville State University
- Minot State University
- North Dakota State University
- University of North Dakota
- Valley City State University
Reported without a system affiliation
- Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College
- Sitting Bull College
Tuition reciprocity
North Dakota takes part in the Midwest Student Exchange Program (MSEP), run by the Midwestern Higher Education Compact. Where a participating public institution accepts an MSEP student from another member state, it may charge no more than 150 per cent of its in-state rate; participating private institutions offer a reduction of at least 10 per cent. Participation is decided campus by campus and program by program — it is not automatic, and a university being in a member state does not mean every one of its programs takes part.
The member states are Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and South Dakota do not participate.
Related pages
- Colleges by state — the other fifty pages.
- Colleges and universities — how the directory is organized and what it deliberately leaves out.
- Ohio colleges — the flagship page, and the only one that covers two-year institutions.
Sources
- NCES IPEDS, Directory information (HD2024) — the 2024–25 collection, the
spine of this table. Institution names, cities, control, level, highest award,
land-grant and HBCU/tribal flags, and system affiliation all come from it.
Downloaded from
nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter; data checked 11 August 2026. - Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, 2021 Basic —
the Notes column, as carried in the IPEDS
C21BASICfield. Checked 11 August - Midwest Student Exchange Program, About MSEP (
msep.mhec.org/about) — the reciprocity section, including the member-state list and the 150 per cent and 10 per cent limits. Checked 11 August 2026. - Wikipedia, List of colleges and universities in North Dakota — used only as a cross-check on coverage, never as the source of a name or a city. Title resolved through the MediaWiki API on 11 August 2026; no redirect, not a disambiguation page.
A caution on currency. HD2024 is the 2024–25 collection, so it is roughly two years behind this page. Colleges close, merge, and rename faster than a federal directory records it. Treat any single entry as a lead to verify, not as proof the institution is still operating.