Pacific Union College

PUC's Vision for the Future

Our vision will expand our reach, make higher education accessible to more, and ensure PUC's future as a leader in the Christian college marketplace.

The Heart of PUC

Nurturing the heart of PUC and maintaining its status as an established and sustainable campus.

Every challenge is a door to opportunity. Like most small and midsize Christian colleges in America, PUC has found itself having to reevaluate who and what we are.

The available pool of interested and qualified students has dropped  dramatically.  Social and financial changes have also affected businesses, across the board.

PUC's future is still bright. Our values, our mission, and our purpose have been given to us by God and remain strong, and our history has provided us solid building blocks. But business as usual is over. We must be bold and willing to accept that the transformation we require may be painful, but it will be worth it.

From the very beginning, PUC has strived to provide excellence in academics and be a pathway to Christ through the education we offer. Our amazing legacy and tens of thousands of beloved alumni prove the value of what PUC has always been and continues to be.

Our commitment is to take the best of what has already proven successful for PUC and combine it with the best and most appropriate ideas for the future to establish ourselves as the strong, vibrant leader in Seventh-day Adventist Christian higher education that we need to be.

Centers of Learning & Influence

Increasing our footprint and influence by offering classes through education centers across the Pacific Union.

If the Angwin campus is the heart and soul of Pacific Union College, the education centers will be the arms and the legs that put us in motion in communities where we are needed. While many students value the on-campus experience and benefit from it, our research shows that we are only reaching a small percentage of the students whose lives would be positively impacted by a PUC education.

More than half of the students in the United States who receive higher education today are non-traditional students. These students have families, jobs, or other commitments in life that make relocation and full-time education impossible. We want to ensure that we reach these students with quality education and spiritual influence as much as the traditional student.

Surprising to many, students coming from our Adventist academies only count for a fraction of the students who have attended PUC. These students are traditionally invested in the residential campus setting and while they are incredibly important to PUC, these students alone don't offer sufficient enrollment to operate a functioning Angwin campus. There are traditional
students from other communities as well, but their numbers are also in decline.

The current American family culture keeps a much closer bond between students and their families, making the desire to move away for college less of a priority for many. Remaining in their home communities that often support them financially or in other ways is of great significance to many students. Conversely, some students play a role in contributing financial or other support to their family or community, and that responsibility keeps them close to home.

For many non-traditional students, a college degree has become a more competitive commodity and it becomes far more affordable to stay local to their community.

Earning a college degree for a specific career, and experiencing beneficial internships as part of the process, has also become a driving force for education. Positioning ourselves in local communities and establishing partnerships with local businesses, healthcare facilities, and other appropriate training centers is an easier outlet to network.

In short, PUC will become a viable option for a much wider range of students if they can remain close to their communities of support and within reach of valuable opportunities while minimizing the disruption to their lives.

Accessible Education

Developing an online curriculum to make financially viable programs and degrees available for all appropriate markets.

Overview

Online learning is not a new concept within higher education and has seen expo- nential growth over the last several years.

Going online is not trendy or new. This is an operational area considered standard by most thriving institutions. Approximately 30% of all higher education students in the US will take at least one online course, and around 20% will complete most of their education online.

PUC will retain the Angwin campus as its core and base of operations. The emphasized areas of focus and support services of the Angwin campus can be exported to a much larger footprint. As we attempt to reach a much larger pool of non-traditional students, online courses will provide the solution.

These high quality courses have already been created by expert teachers on the Angwin campus, and support services have been developed that can be exported online. Because these resources are in place, we have a high quality product that is ready to be easily distributed to a much wider audience. This will expand PUC's footprint and produce additional revenue for the college.

Strategic Start

Our entry into this online market needs to be both strategic and intentional.

First, we will begin with the programs that are fully developed, have been approved, and have proven popular with large market potential. Our goal is to eventually take several of our top programs and work with campus faculty to fine tune our delivery strategy and ensure appropriate counseling and support services are in place.

Our department of nursing has an approved associate to bachelor's degree program with accreditation and a fully developed curriculum, making it an ideal first focus for online development. Potential partnerships with Adventist Health and other appropriate organizations will strengthen the potential for this program, as well as help us reach a wider student pool.

We plan to launch this AS to RN program for fall 2021 and are also considering an approved MBA program, degree completions related to business, and general education courses for the same quarter.

Following this start, we will continue to develop more programs such as visual arts, social work, education, and health science in years two and three.

There are several programs that we recognize would be in high demand, but will require an extended timeline. For example, an online associate nursing program would include clinical instruction at various partner sites and would likely take a few years to fully develop and implement.

In addition to online-only academic courses and degrees, we anticipate a strong synergy between our new education centers and the online programs. In many cases, online courses may supplement education center programs.

Finally, online programs can provide technology for use by a wider range of adjunct instructors who are specialists in their fields.

In Summary

Online courses will allow us to use our Angwin campus instructors and services more strategically,  which  will  translate to a higher level of productivity and an improved revenue stream for both the college and instructors. We will be able to expand the Pacific Union College footprint and influence several hundred additional students each year.

In many cases, non-traditional students who would never have a chance to experience PUC will now have the opportunity to do so without sacrificing their responsibilities or leaving the support of their community. Online education will be one more way to grow our base and increase our financial stability.

News

• PUC Releases Vision for the Future
  Jun 4, 2021