New College was founded in 1977 to provide high-caliber interdisciplinary lifelong learning for Christian lay adults. The college's mission statement is to "recover an understanding of ministry as bringing God's presence into the public world of work, politics, civic life, the academic disciplines, and commerce, as well as into the private spaces of personal discipleship, family and friendship." Many courses are short-format courses; most are in the evenings or on weekends. Recent and upcoming courses include Biblical Hebrew, women in Christian service and Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility: Christian Repentance and Reconciliation.
The college is very small and does not offer degrees. The faculty does develop and tailor courses for many local churches; check the website for details. New College Berkeley is an affiliate of the Graduate Theological Union, headquartered on "Holy Hill" on the north side of the Cal campus, and most of its courses are held on various GTU properties.