Pepperdine Opens Westlake Satellite Campus

It’s becoming more common in the business world that established scientists, engineers and other working professionals return to college to further their careers through management training.

And the number of Ventura County workers in that group was large enough to warrant the establishment of a satellite campus of Pepperdine University’s School of Business and Management in Thousand Oaks.

Otis W. Baskin, dean of the business school, said an initial crop of 73 students enrolled this summer in the local MBA program, which began in June, and an additional 42 students signed up earlier this month. To kick off the new school year, Pepperdine administrators recently held an official grand opening at the campus in the Westlake Center Plaza II office complex at 2829 Townsgate Road, Westlake.

“Before we opened the campus we spent some time assessing the interest and demand in Ventura County, and came to the conclusion that it would be a good match,” Baskin said. “The quality of the potential students in the county is certainly high enough to offer a graduate-level degree program.”

Baskin said most of the students enrolled at the new campus are firmly entrenched in their careers, working at businesses such as biotechnology giant Amgen Inc. in Thousand Oaks and Xircom Inc., a manufacturer of computer network systems in Newbury Park.

“As they grow in the practice of their profession, many people find that their job requires management within an organization and that their future career path is in management,” Baskin said. “We offer a degree program designed for professionals moving into general managerial functions.”

In many cases, employers help pay tuition to encourage workers to go back to school, Baskin said. Amgen, for example, will pay for a worker’s class, providing it meets certain criteria, such as being directly related to the employee’s job or a related position at the company.

The MBA program at the Thousand Oaks campus offers courses in accounting, finance, marketing and other subjects.

Tuition is about $4,800 for two classes, which is the usual course load for a student each trimester. Baskin said students generally take two years to earn their master’s degrees, so overall, the program costs nearly $30,000.

The new campus is the fifth off-site branch of Pepperdine’s business school. Other campuses are in Culver City, Long Beach, Irvine and Encino.