[8] The school's official mission statement is to educate learners to think with discernment, to believe with insight and commitment and to act with confidence, compassion, and competence.

[9][10] Burman University is located in Lacombe, Alberta, on top of a hill overlooking Barnett Lake.

Initially beginning as a four-year degree offered through Union College, Burman began awarding the Bachelor of Education under its own charter once approval was granted by the Province of Alberta in 2004.

[18] Parkview Adventist Academy (10-12) and College Heights Christian School (K-9) operate on the campus of Burman University.

Campus Ministries provides a number of service opportunities for Burman students, such as a soup kitchen, sunshine bands, and mission trips.

The Acronaires are a touring gymnastics group, founded in 1973, which performs shows at schools and communities across Canada and around the world.

Burman's teams had previously competed in the Alberta Colleges Athletic League prior to the collapse of that organization in 2015.

In 2018, Burman was granted permission to join the Prairie Athletic Conference, which consists of colleges in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

The Choral Union is highly acclaimed, and has sung across Europe, 47 of the 50 United States, Latin America, and China.

[16][35][36][37][38][39] In addition to the choir, Burman also has an orchestra under the direction of Eduardo Sola, which also tours extensively and frequently accompanies the Choral Union.

This concert series invites classical musicians from around the world to perform for a general admission audience.

Student nationalities reveal the cultural diversity of pioneer life in Alberta: English, Scotch, French, Swede, German, Canadian and mixtures from the States.

[44] Subjects taught included Bible, grammar, geography, physiology, arithmetic, reading and "Great Controversy".

"[44] An elementary church school started in that same month of January in the same rented building with Effie Russell Olson as teacher.

President Burman and his wife lived on the farm and had charge of the school during this early formative period.

"For several nights the thermometer registered 50° to 60° below zero," the boys' dean, Joseph L. Stansbury, writes, "and we are not very well protected from cold.

We are confident that students who cheerfully endure these disagreeable features, and do not allow our meager and inadequate accommodations to hinder or discourage them in their educational work, are gaining an experience that will be a very essential qualification for missionary work in foreign countries, where there are so many obstacles to be overcome..."[47] In 1909, the school purchased a site near Lacombe consisting of over 1,200 acres of farmland.

Classes begun before construction had completed, leading to students sleeping in a barn and in tents during the first semester at Lacombe.

Eventually, a small village named College Heights, Alberta sprung up around the school to support the institution.

Enrolment rose quickly during the first few years, from 61 students to 223, and the school went through a number of name changes in a short span of time.

Battleford Academy, another Seventh-day Adventist school in Saskatchewan, was merged with Canadian Junior College in an effort to save money.

After World War II, a post-war boom increased enrolment above 300, and allowed the school to pay off debts from reconstructing the administration building.

[48][49][16][35] In 1958, the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists recommended that Canadian Union College pursue provincial accreditation.

However, the government of Alberta did not allow private institutions to grant degrees at this time, and so no accreditation came; and the school was left heavily in debt.

Beginning in the 1970s, Canadian Union College began pursuing a series of affiliation programs, to enable its students to study at CUC and get a degree.

In 1991, Canadian Union College became one of the first four private institutions in Alberta given the ability to grant bachelor's degrees.

This committee appealed to the college's constituency, the Seventh-day Adventist membership in Canada, to suggest possible names.

The change to "University College" was also made in conjunction with the other three private institutions in Alberta which had been allowed to grant degrees.

The Union College affiliate program ended in 2008, after CUC was granted the right to award the Bachelor of Education degree.