APU at a Glance
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About APU
Azusa Pacific is a comprehensive, Christian, evangelical university, committed to God First and known for excellence in higher education. APU’s main campus lies just 26 miles northeast of Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley, while its seven Southern California regional centers bring convenience and extend quality programming in the following areas: High Desert (Victorville), Inland Empire (San Bernardino), Los Angeles, Murrieta, Orange County, San Diego, and Ventura.
The university offers more than 60 areas of undergraduate study, 26 master’s degree programs, and 7 doctorates through its six schools and one college, as well as the Center for Adult and Professional Studies.
Azusa Pacific is built on Four Cornerstones: Christ, Scholarship, Community, and Service.
On November 27, 2000, Jon R. Wallace, DBA, became the 16th president of Azusa Pacific University.
Read the university’s complete history here.
Recognition
Azusa Pacific secured a place in the most prestigious category of the U.S.News & World Report’s America’s Best Colleges 2008 rankings, categorized alongside premier national universities such as Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. APU ranked in the third tier of this national category. Previously, APU ranked in the top 25 of the Western-Universities Master’s category.
For the fourth consecutive year, The Princeton Review designated APU as 1 of 123 colleges in the 2008 Best in the West category.
In 2007, Diverse Issues in Higher Education recognized APU for the fourth year as one of the nation’s top schools in awarding degrees to minority students. APU ranked among the top 100 in 10 categories, including ranking 6th for awarding Hispanic master’s degrees in the education category, and 60th for total minority master’s degrees awarded across all disciplines, up from 10th and 81st in 2006.
Enrollment
The school’s first graduating class had 12 people. Today, APU has an enrollment of more than 8,000 students.
Total students enrolled: 8,084
- Traditional Undergraduate: 4,027
- Undergraduate: 4,615
- Graduate: 3,469
Total faculty: 848
- Full-time faculty: 376
Student-faculty ratio: 14:1
Did You Know?
Since 2002, 13 alumni and 2 faculty members have been named Fulbright Scholars. Additionally, APU welcomed it’s first Visiting Fulbright Scholar from South Korea in 2007.
Students have more than 40 national and international study opportunities through the Center for Global Learning & Engagement, allowing them to further their education in the High Sierras, Oxford, South Africa, and more.
APU encourages students to give back to the community by participating in more than 30 community service programs and partaking in service-learning courses.
Aware of the increasing need for science professionals across the nation, the university began construction on a $54 million, 71,000-square-foot state-of-the-art Science Center, due to be completed in summer 2009.
Each year, the Center for Research in Science brings guest scholars to campus to discuss important issues surrounding science and religion through the Science, Faith, and Culture Lecture Series.
Fall 2008 marks the opening of the revolutionary Pediatric Neurodevelopment Institute, a university-based, multidisciplinary diagnostic, treatment, and research center for children and adolescents with learning challenges, emotional and behavioral difficulties, as well as gifted children and adolescents, and those with special physical needs.
With the goal of transforming educational practices, the Noel Academy for Strengths-Based Leadership and Education equips college and university faculty and staff to identify and nurture students’ strengths as the foundation for engaging students in the learning process, helping them to achieve excellence.
In March 2008, APU’s Haggard Graduate School of Theology celebrated 25 years of preparing scholars for effective, practical ministry, and the promotion of spiritual, personal, and professional development.
Azusa Pacific’s Cougar athletic teams have won 95 GSAC Championships and 30 NAIA Championships.
In 2007-08, the Cougars captured their fourth straight Directors’ Cup, recognizing APU as the NAIA’s top athletics program in the country.
More than 11 Olympic track and field athletes have graduated from Azusa Pacific since 1980. At the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, alumni Bryan Clay ’03 captured the silver medal in the decathlon and Stephanie McCann ’01 secured 10th place in the pole vault.
