St. Petersburg College

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

St. Petersburg College is an accredited college based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The school has nine separate campuses spread out throughout Pinellas County; four campuses in St. Petersburg, and one campus each in Seminole, Pinellas Park, Largo, Clearwater, and Tarpon Springs serving some 65,000 students annually.

The college offers bachelor degrees, associate in arts degrees and associate in science degrees, as well as certificates.

The college was founded in 1927 as a private community college and was Florida's first two-year institution of higher learning. Today it is a public institution. It still provides community college programs to students, but has also expanded into offering 4 year bachelor degrees in some areas.

St. Petersburg College is a purely commuter college and has no resident-students. This is mostly due to the fact that no single campus is large enough to warrant a need for student campus housing. Many of the SPC campuses do not offer a large curriculum of available courses, and instead specialize in one or two specific fields. For example, the Pinellas Park campus specializes in courses centering around health care, and the Seminole campus is a highly technology-oriented campus, and serves as a "University Partnership Center," a campus that is shared with in-state public universities. The SPC Seminole campus will often have classes conducted and offering credit for the schools of The University of Florida, University of South Florida, Florida State University, and the University of Central Florida.

In June 2001, the college's name was changed from St. Petersburg Junior College to St. Petersburg College, and the college was authorized to begin offering bachelors degrees. The first bachelors degrees were offered in August of 2002. The college offers bachelor degrees in the following subjects: Dental Hygiene, Education, International Business, Nursing, Orthotics and Prosthetics, Paralegal Studies, Public Safety Administration, Technology Management and Veterinary Technology.