About the Roanoke Higher Education Center
The Roanoke Higher Education Center, which
has been hailed as a model for education in the new millennium, offers
over 200 programs of study through the Center’s partner organizations.
Averett University, Bluefield College, James Madison University,
Jefferson College of Health Sciences, Hampton University, Hollins University, Mary
Baldwin College, Nova Southeastern University, Old Dominion University,
Radford University, Roanoke College, TAP - This Valley Works job training programs,
the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Virginia Western
Community College offer undergraduate and graduate level courses. The
Western Virginia Workforce Development Board is also located at the Center.
In August 2000, the Roanoke Center welcomed its first class of 2,500 students
to newly renovated classrooms located in the former headquarters of the
Norfolk and Western Railroad in downtown Roanoke. A total of $19 million in
state, local and private capital, as well as federal and state historic tax
credits, had been used to transform the 1931 Art Deco building into a
state-of-the-art facility for learning.
Guided by community needs and interests, input from business and civic
leaders and the experience of member institutions, programs are developed
that bring to bare a rich variety of educational resources that the new
facility makes more accessible than has been possible in the past. Distance
learning technology plays a key role in the collaborative efforts that
characterize many of the new educational offerings, and the Center allows for
an exceptionally broad set of educational opportunities:
The Center is part of the larger effort to stimulate economic development in
the region while it is also a corner stone in the revitalization of the
historic Gainsboro Neighborhood. The synergy of regional economic development
and downtown Roanoke redevelopment efforts sparks training and educational
opportunity for people at all levels of educational need making this a
multidimensional project that has a substantial positive impact in the region
as a whole, and provides the Commonwealth and the nation with a new model for
collaboration in training and education.
The Roanoke Higher Education Center is unique in the number and kind of
organizations collaborating to expand educational access. It is an incubator
for innovative approaches to learning that include a mix of traditional
classroom instruction, computer assisted instruction, and distance learning
instruction that meet a wide variety of student learning styles and needs.
The public and private investment in the Center is generating a powerful yield
for the advancement of workforce training and higher education and the further
development of the Greater Roanoke Region.
From workforce development to advanced graduate study, opportunities to apply
computer and distance learning technology in the liberal arts and sciences,
health sciences, business, and in fact, the broadest range of learning programs
ever assembled under one roof are generating new and ever more innovative ways
to enhance the learning process. The Center is a model for educational
cooperation, innovation, and access all of which is supported by the inclusion
of advanced instructional technology.
The Center also accommodates the growing corporate training and meeting needs
of companies across the region. With more than 57 available classrooms, a 2,100
square-foot meeting room and advanced computer technology and video conferencing
facilities, the Center is able to accommodate all types of business gatherings.
Click here for the Roanoke Higher Education Center Strategic Plan
Click here for the Roanoke Higher Education Center Member Handbook
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