Liberty University is a Christian liberal arts university in Lynchburg, Virginia. It was founded in 1971 by conservative Christian Jerry Falwell, who is also the Senior Pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church. The University is very competitive in sports and it is a member of the Division I level Big South Conference for 17 sports. The University regularly wins the Sasser Cup which is the Big South's trophy for the university which has the winningest sports program among the member institutions. Dr. Falwell's vision is to build the university as big as Notre Dame and Brigham Young University one day with 25,000 students on campus and another 25,000 in External Degree Programs. Students who live on campus attend convocation three times per week where they learn from speakers in all walks of professional life. Past speakers have included Sam Donaldson, the first President Bush, Billy Graham and Sean Hannity.

Although Liberty is still a very young university, it is still rapidly growing; the University opened a law school in the fall of 2004. In addition, 19 new dormitory buildings and an underground tunnel connecting the north and south ends of the campus were completed for the fall semester of 2004. Other projects include over 800,000 square feet (74,000 m²) of space for a student center, the movement of Thomas Road Church and Lynchburg Christian Academy to a property adjacent to the Main Campus, LU Student facilities expanded, and the above mentioned Law School and Library.

Liberty University recently started a new graduate program in Communication Studies. The Master of Arts in Communication Studies [1]  accepted its first class of 22 this Fall, 2004 and was approved by the SACS accrediting body in November of 2004. At this writing, seven new students will joining the program in January with an expected August 2005 intake of 25.

U.S. News & World Report ranked Liberty University in the 4th tier of Southern Master's Universities. The magazine ranked its selectivity as "Less Selective."