St. Andrews Officially Open for Business in Columbia and Charleston
125 Year Old Private, Not-For-Profit Webber International University Opens 2 Metropolitan Campuses
Babson Park, FL (03/28/2021) — St. Andrews University, a branch of Webber International University, is officially open for business in Charleston (2431 Aviation Avenue, Suite 703, charleston.sa.edu) and Columbia (1628 Browning Road, Suite 180, columbia.sa.edu). The 125-year-old private, not-for-profit, SACSCOC accredited university will initially offer a bachelors and masters degree in business at each of its South Carolina locations on a schedule tailored to working adults. Applications are now being accepted at each location for classes beginning in May.
Like the university's four other metropolitan campuses, the South Carolina campuses are designed to bring traditional face-to-face education to working adults where they work and on their schedule. Said Dr. H. Keith Wade, the university's President and CEO, "there's nothing wrong with on-line education; we have a bunch of students pursuing their degrees entirely on-line and that works great for them. But an awful lot of students want face to face instruction. And while most of our students are traditional students - they live in dorms, eat in the cafeteria, play a sport - our metropolitan campuses are meant to service working adults. It's a traditional education, delivered on a non-traditional schedule." The university has carefully developed its curriculum based on the needs of employers and has been adamant that the degrees will have the same academic rigor and curriculum regardless of where earned. Said Dr. Nelson Marquez, the university's Vice President of Institutional Effectiveness and Research, "we were very careful to be sure we are delivering the same degree - minus the sports, parties, and other features of residential life - as on our residential campuses."
Ms. Stephanie Dauway, MBA, will serve as the Campus President for the Columbia campus. Dauway, who earned her masters degree while working full time, brings to the campus over fifteen years in higher education leadership. Said Dauway, "I'm a long time Columbia resident. It's an exciting place to be. But for our city to keep growing we have to keep building workforce skills. We're focusing on 'learn today use tomorrow' classwork delivered around a one class at a time schedule which recognizes that our students want to advance their education and careers but also need to balance job and family needs." Dauway said "one of the unique features of our metropolitan campuses is that they're purpose built for working adults. As just one example, we expect many of our students will bring transfer credit with them and our enrollment counselors have been trained on helping them find the quickest path to degree. Likewise, our financial aid counselors have focused their training on the aid available to working adults. The whole focus of our metropolitan campuses is working adults."
The university has not yet announced the Campus President for its Charleston campus.
Established in 1927 by Roger Babson as the first college chartered under Florida's then new charitable and educational laws, and America's second school of business for women, our campuses in Babson Park, FL (residential, established 1927); Charleston, SC; Charlotte, NC; Columbia, SC; Laurinburg, NC (residential, established 1896); Miami Lakes, FL (opening 2021); Pinehurst, NC; and West Palm Beach, FL (opening 2021) now educate men and women from over 50 different nations. Degrees are offered at the associates, bachelors, and masters level through traditional day, accelerated night and weekend, and entirely on-line formats. Joining Webber as a branch campus in 2011, St. Andrews University is an historically Presbyterian, comprehensive liberal arts school tracing its roots back to 1896. The University features highly qualified faculty, highly engaged staff, small class size, and a wide array of intercollegiate sports and other extracurricular activities. The University has been recognized as a US News and World Reports Best Regional Colleges: South, a Princeton Review Best Southeastern College, and has earned Petersons' top marks for academics, value and community. The University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, and numerous programs have earned additional programmatic accreditations.
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Columbia Campus President Stephanie Dauway, MBA