U. of Phoenix closes Carolina campus, keeps Guaynabo
University of Phoenix’s Carolina Learning Center.
The closings announced this week at the University of Phoenix will not affect its main Puerto Rico campus — one of the school’s oldest branches located in Guaynabo — but will represent the demise of the Carolina Learning Center, News is my Business confirmed Thursday.
Ending new enrollments and graduating current students will effectively phase out the facility located in the Escorial commercial complex, University of Phoenix Spokesman Alex Clark told this media outlet.
“We will stop enrolling new students at the smaller facility in Carolina effective this week,” Clark said. “If a student were to ask about enrolling at the Carolina Learning Center, they would be directed to the main campus.”
It will join the estimated 90 learning centers and 115 University of Phoenix locations that parent company Apollo Group will close, as part of a “reengineering initiative” to cutback annual operating expenses by about $300 million by fiscal 2014.
“[At Carolina] we have students enrolled who will continue to take their courses to earn their degrees,” he said, noting the current enrollment at the learning center is about 200.
The University of Phoenix is one of the largest for-profit higher education providers in North America established in 1976, which offers associate or bachelor’s degrees in an untraditional setting. Students enroll in one course at a time and can complete their studies at their own pace. The school targets working adult students.
Aside from its physical campus facilities, University of Phoenix offers studies through its eCampus, which Clark said is highly used by Puerto Rico students.
“We have many only students who chose that alternative rather than come to campus,” he said.
As for the Carolina Learning Center’s current staff, they too will be incorporated into the Guaynabo branch, located in the San Patricio area that currently has an enrollment of about 900 students.
“There’s no change at the campus, which is one of our oldest. Puerto Rico is one of the first places we expanded to outside Arizona, some 20 years ago,” Clark said.
