History
American InterContinental University (AIU) was founded in 1970 in Lucerne, Switzerland by American couple Jack and Helen Barnette of Atlanta, and was first known as the American Fashion College of Switzerland. The school was recognized as an American degree awarding institution in 1971, initially offering associate and bachelor's degrees starting in 1974. In 1976 American Fashion College of Switzerland opened a campus in Atlanta and in 1978, the Lucerne campus moved to London, and changed its name to the American College for the Applied Arts.
By 1978, the school had approximately 300 students, and began to expand its course offering beyond fashion to areas such as business. Today, AIU has about 24,000 students and offers a wide range of undergraduate and graduate degrees in programs such as business, IT, criminal justice and fashion design. More than 80 percent of AIU students attend AIU Online, an internet-based online campus that delivers degree programs 100 percent online.
• Atlanta - Buckhead, Georgia campus 1976
• London, UK campus 1978
• Los Angeles, California campus 1982
• Dubai campus 1995
• Atlanta - Dunwoody and South Florida campus 1998
• Online campus 2002
• Houston, Texas, 2003
• Dunwoody and Buckhead consolidate as AIU Atlanta, 2009
The institution first received SACS accreditation in 1987. Steve Bostic bought the school in 1996 and changed its name to American InterContinental University. In 2001, AIU was acquired by Career Education Corporation, a publicly traded operator of for-profit schools that was established in 1994.
In 2009, AIU was granted accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA). AIU, which had been accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) since 1987, sought HLC accreditation to better reflect the fact that the majority of its students are served through its Internet-based campus which is based in the HLC geographic region. SACS and HLC are among the six regional accrediting organizations recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. In 2011, AIU earned accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs.
Read more about this topic: American Inter Continental University
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“There has never been in history another such culture as the Western civilization M a culture which has practiced the belief that the physical and social environment of man is subject to rational manipulation and that history is subject to the will and action of man; whereas central to the traditional cultures of the rivals of Western civilization, those of Africa and Asia, is a belief that it is environment that dominates man.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“[Men say:] “Don’t you know that we are your natural protectors?” But what is a woman afraid of on a lonely road after dark? The bears and wolves are all gone; there is nothing to be afraid of now but our natural protectors.”
—Frances A. Griffin, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 19, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“... that there is no other way,
That the history of creation proceeds according to
Stringent laws, and that things
Do get done in this way, but never the things
We set out to accomplish and wanted so desperately
To see come into being.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)