The Villanova University Honors Program is a distinctive academic community comprised of persons who particularly enjoy the experience of intellectual growth. The Program is designed to provide exceptional opportunities for critical, independent thinking, for the creative exchange of ideas, and for the synthesis of intellectual insights into lived experience. Honors enhances the academic life central to a Villanova education by bringing together talented students and faculty in challenging seminars, individual research projects and co-curricular activities. Members of the program enjoy the benefits of a small college environment, while taking full advantage of the many resources of the broader University community.

The Honors Program is an academic division within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences  and offers courses primarily in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. The final purpose of education in the liberal arts — to establish the foundations for civic friendship in a climate of mutual respect and intellectual rigor — is the guiding principle of Honors. The liberal arts tradition provides the more complete context of values within which practical skills can mature and from which professional lives can attain more than mere personal success.

The Program proceeds from the premise that the humanities are as valuable in preparation for professional careers as they are for their own sake. The development of imagination, intellect and leadership skills, each requisite for professional success, is primary among the goals of a liberal arts education. Thus, students enrolled in the colleges of Engineering, Nursing and the Villanova School of Business at Villanova participate in the Honors Program as well, taking some Honors courses as electives and using others to fulfill their college core requirements in business, the humanities and the social and natural sciences.