Black Hills State University

What Black Hills State University does

Black Hills State University (BHSU) is a public regional comprehensive university founded in 1883 and headquartered in Spearfish, South Dakota, operating under the South Dakota Board of Regents. It serves primarily residents of western South Dakota and draws additional students regionally and online, delivering roughly 70 academic programs across 125 majors, minors, and certificates, with concentrations in teacher education, business, and music evidenced by CAEP, AACSB, and NASM accreditations. The institution operates two campuses — Spearfish (main) and Rapid City — and supports distance learning through the D2L Brightspace learning management system alongside a Banner/Colleague student information stack and Microsoft 365 productivity tools.

BHSU's academic offerings span undergraduate and select graduate programs in education, business, natural sciences, the arts, and emerging workforce-aligned short-format programs such as the Applied Mineral Exploration Camp launched in 2026. The Rapid City campus has been positioned as an economic-development node, hosting the South Dakota Board of Economic Development in 2026. Operational backbone includes Perceptive Content document management, library systems, and standard enterprise IT; no proprietary AI/ML capabilities are described in the available data.

Revenue mechanics follow the standard U.S. public regional university model: a combination of tuition and fees, state appropriations through the South Dakota Board of Regents, federal Title IV financial aid, TRIO program funding, and donations/grants from alumni and philanthropic sources. The institution competes in a defined regional catchment in the Black Hills / western South Dakota area, with limited in-region public peers, and uses dual credit and K-12 partnerships as a feeder pipeline. Customer concentration risk is moderate on the revenue side because of dependence on a single state system and federal aid programs, despite a long-tail individual-student enrollment base.

Name

Black Hills State University

Legal name

Black Hills State University

Website

https://bhsu.edu

Company type

Public

Founded year

1883

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Black Hills State University is a public regional comprehensive university in Spearfish, South Dakota, founded in 1883, operating two campuses and offering 70+ academic programs with concentrations in teacher education, business, and music for western South Dakota and online learners.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Spearfish

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Tuition and Fees: Revenue from undergraduate and graduate tuition, including in-state and out-of-state rates, along with various campus fees for services and facilities
2. State Funding: Appropriations from the South Dakota Board of Regents and state government funding for public higher education
3. Financial Aid: Student financial aid services including grants, work-study, and loan processing
4. Donations and Grants: Private donations through BHSU Foundation and research grants from federal and state agencies

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Black Hills State University is a public regional university that delivers higher-education instruction, awarding baccalaureate and master's degrees through more than 70 academic programs across its Spearfish main campus, Rapid City regional campus, and online/distance channels. Core services include academic instruction, educator preparation, student academic and career support (TRIO, Math and Writing Assistance Centers, Career Development), and access to library and research resources.

Product overview

Black Hills State University is a comprehensive regional public university offering a unified educational platform centered on its academic degree programs. The institution provides over 70 undergraduate and graduate programs alongside integrated student support services including TRIO Student Support Services, the Math Assistance Center (MAC), Writing Assistance Center (WAC), Career Development Center, and Student Success Center. The university's College of Education offers CAEP-accredited teacher preparation programs with field experience components, while the BHSU Library supports academic research. Field Experience programs provide hands-on classroom training through partnerships with regional PK-12 schools for practicums and student teaching internships.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Academic Programs More than 70 academic programs including baccalaureate and select master's degrees across arts, humanities, business, education, sciences, and social sciences. Delivered on-campus at Spearfish and Rapid City, with select programs available online.
• TRIO Student Support Services (SSS) Federally-funded support program that helps first-generation, low-income, and students with disabilities succeed in college through personalized advising, tutoring, financial literacy coaching, and career preparation.
• Math Assistance Center (MAC) Free drop-in tutoring center located in the E.Y. Berry Library that provides mathematics assistance for BHSU students at all levels without requiring an appointment.
• Writing Assistance Center (WAC) One-on-one consultations for writing assignments at any stage, plus research assistance, citation help, and resume reviews, offered in-person and online to BHSU students.
• Career Development Center Career preparation services for BHSU students and alumni, including job listings through Handshake, one-on-one coaching, resume reviews, mock interviews, and career assessments.
• BHSU Library Library services including catalog search, interlibrary loan, archives and special collections, and access to academic databases and research resources for BHSU students and faculty.
• Student Success Center

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 90% of BHSU education students pass Praxis exams on first attempt
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• South Dakota Board of RegentscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBHSU operates under the governance of the South Dakota Board of Regents (SDBOR), which oversees the six public universities in South Dakota. SDBOR sets policies, approves curricula, and coordinates system-wide initiatives including the campus alert system and shared technology platforms.
• Regional K-12 School DistrictscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBHSU maintains field experience and student teaching partnerships with regional P-12 schools for educator preparation programs. The Office of Field Experience coordinates all placements in collaboration with school districts.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Regional players

• Wayne State College: Another small public regional college in the Nebraska State College System. Comparable in enrollment profile, undergraduate-focused portfolio, and rural Plains location, though serving a different state.
• Chadron State College: Small public regional college in northwest Nebraska under the Nebraska State College System. Highly comparable in mission, scale, and rural-mountain-west catchment, though operating under a different state governance structure.
• Minot State University: Small public regional university in Minot, North Dakota. Similar enrollment size, undergraduate-heavy mix, and rural service-area mission, though under a different state system (North Dakota University System).
• Montana State University Billings: Public regional university within the Montana State University system, serving a similar rural-mountain-west catchment with an enrollment scale and program mix comparable to BHSU.

Direct peers

• Dakota State University: SDBOR peer institution in Madison, SD, with comparable enrollment size and a similar mix of baccalaureate and select graduate programs. Directly comparable in governance, funding structure, and regional role.
• Northern State University: Fellow small public regional university in the South Dakota Board of Regents system located in Aberdeen. Comparable in scale, program breadth, governance structure, and rural-midwest catchment, making it BHSU's closest public peer.
• South Dakota School of Mines and Technology: SDBOR peer located in Rapid City, the same metro as BHSU-Rapid City. Similar size and public-regional-university profile, though with a STEM/technical focus; serves overlapping regional employers and competes for similar in-state applicants.

Broad incumbents

• South Dakota State University: The flagship land-grant university in the SDBOR system. Substantially larger and more research-intensive than BHSU but operates under the same governance and competes with BHSU for South Dakota undergraduates.
• University of Wyoming: Land-grant flagship for the neighboring state of Wyoming. Larger and more research-intensive than BHSU but competes for in-region students and operates under a similar public-mission structure.
• University of South Dakota: SDBOR's doctoral university and the system's only medical school. Functions as a broader incumbent: it does not specialize in BHSU's niche but competes for in-state students and operates in the same governing structure.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/BlackHillsState
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@BlackHillsState
• Facebookfacebook.com/46444848800
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/black-hills-state-university
• Instagraminstagram.com/blackhillsstate

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles14 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Black Hills State University