Penn State will begin offering select courses this fall at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego with the goal of giving military personnel more access to a college degree.
The site will be the university’s first classroom on a military base, the school announced Wednesday.
The courses, from defense- or business-related academic programs, will be taught in a dedicated Penn State classroom at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot via Penn State World Campus, the University’s online campus.
“We are excited to expand access to higher education to the San Diego military community,” said Penn State President Eric Barron. “The university has a long history of educating members of our armed forces, and we are committed to providing them with a high-quality academic experience and the opportunity to become part of the Penn State community.”
The academic operations will be managed by Penn State World Campus through a five-year agreement with the Marine Corps, and military personnel who take classes on-site will be registered as World Campus students.
The agreement calls for on-site face-to-face instruction, which is designed to orient military personnel into an education setting for them to finish their degrees online through World Campus.
The San Diego area has one of the largest concentrations of military installations in the country, which include Naval Base San Diego, Naval Amphibious Base Coronado and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.
Within a 15-mile radius of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot are more than 55,000 military personnel, according to the Department of Defense’s 2012 Demographics Report, the most recent available.
Select courses from the following degree programs will be taught through the Marine Corps Recruit Depot classroom:
- Master of professional studies in homeland security
- Master of professional studies in supply chain management
- Master of professional studies in human resources and employment relations
- Bachelor of science in labor and employment relations
Once students have completed the courses offered at the depot, they can continue their academic program online through World Campus to finish their degrees.
“Penn State World Campus is providing another option for a high-quality college education to the military community in San Diego,” said Craig Weidemann, vice president for outreach and vice provost for online education at Penn State.
“The classroom environment is an important element to help our military students transition into an online educational setting. Finishing their degree online through Penn State World Campus will be a good fit for them because they can study when it’s convenient from wherever they are in the world.”
World Campus will begin renovating the classroom space in spring 2015 for classes to begin in August, the start of the University’s fall 2015 semester. In addition to the classroom space at the depot, World Campus will have office space for an on-site admissions counselor and an outreach director.
Currently, 17 percent of World Campus’s 10,805 students are military-affiliated students.