West Coast University-Los Angeles

West Coast University-Los Angeles is a private institution with a focus on healthcare professionals.

Founded in 1909, WCU was originally a small Los Angeles ophthalmology school with one classroom. It gained a reputation over successive decades as one of the first institutions in the state to prioritise evening and adult learning programmes. It remains committed to training working adults, but it now entirely focuses on healthcare, particularly nursing and dental hygiene. Its postgraduate study centre was opened in 2015.

It is situated in the north west of the city centre, near Hollywood. Los Angeles is the the largest city in California, and the second biggest in the country. Its most famous landmarks include Disneyland and various beaches, but the most iconic is Hollywood, the global centre of the film industry since the 1920s. Millions of tourists visit each year for that photograph of the Hollywood Sign, on Mount Lee, and others go on various studio tours. Hollywood, which hosts the Oscars each spring, has a busy nightlife. It has been revitalised in recent years.

The LA campus is three miles from Staples Center, the home of basketball’s Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers, and Dodger Stadium, where baseball’s LA Dodgers play. WCU also has six other campuses spread across three states, in nearby Anaheim and Ontario, California; Dallas, Texas, and Miami, Florida. The other southern California sites have existed for longer, but the Dallas and Miami campuses were opened in 2012 and 2014 respectively.