The University of Phoenix, a large private university that targets working professionals, has opened a Spokane learning center and plans to start offering classes here later this month.


The Phoenix-based school, which operates 130 learning centers in 26 states and offers a number of degree programs online, has leased about 2,000 square feet of office and classroom space in the Rock Pointe Corporate Center, at 1330 N. Washington, for its learning center here.


Mark Cameron, a Salt Lake City-based regional vice president for the university, says the learning center here has seven administrative employees and is searching for part-time instructors. Faculty from the schools Boise and Utah campuses will teach classes here until local instructors are in place.


Classes will begin here on Sept. 22.


Cameron says the University of Phoenix is looking for a larger, more permanent location for its center here. The school hopes to find by next summer a 10,000-square-foot location, ideally along the Interstate 90 corridor, he says.


At the Spokane center, the university will offer a masters degree in business administration and an undergraduate business management degree-completion program for people who have some college credits. In each program, students will take one class at a time. Each course will meet in a four-hour session once a week for five consecutive weeks.


The University of Phoenix will use what it calls a FlexNet class model at the Spokane location, he says. With such a model, the first and last classes in each five-week course will be taught in a conventional classroom, and the three middle classes will be taught online.


The Spokane center will be one of the few FlexNet-only campuses that the university operates, Cameron says.


Paul Green, manager of the Spokane learning center, says the FlexNet model can attract students from a broad geographic area because students need to travel to the center just twice to complete a five-week course. For instance, he says, a student from Sandpoint has signed up for one of the first classes at the Spokane center, he says.


The University of Phoenix expects to attract students to the Spokane center from throughout Eastern Washington and North Idaho.