Southern Nazarene University is located in Bethany, Oklahoma, a Northwest suburb of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

In 1990, the SNU School of Adult Studies opened the Tulsa Campus.  This fully staffed off-campus facility brings SNU non-traditional adult education to northeast Oklahoma. In 2007, the school was renamed the College of Professional and Graduate Studies.

SNU established non-traditional adult education in 1986, offering adult learners the opportunity to return to college and attend class one night a week  while still allowing them to work full-time.  The School of Adult Studies, then referred to as External Programs, was established to manage adult degree completion programs.  Today approximately 55% of all students attending SNU are adults.

Southern Nazarene University is a liberal arts institution with all undergraduate and graduate programs fully accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.  SNU is committed to excellence in higher education in the modern world as it integrates faith, learning, and life.

Near the end of the 19th Century, numerous small religious groups around the nation coalesced to form the Church of the Nazarene.  The church began to rapidly expand in size.  In 1899, the first of several small colleges was founded to aid the mission of the church in the south-central part of the United States: these schools merged to form Bethany-Peniel College in 1920; Bethay-Peniel College became Bethany Nazarene College in 1955; and in 1985, after 86 years of existence, Bethany Nazarene College became Southern Nazarene University.