Piedmont International University is a private Bible College and Graduate School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States. Originally called Piedmont Bible Institute (later Piedmont Bible College and Piedmont Baptist College) the school changed its name to reflect its heritage and expansion. The university is located near downtown Winston-Salem between the historic district of Old Salem and the newly constructed minor-league baseball stadium. Its current President is Dr. Charles Petitt, a former church planter and missionary to St. Vincent.
As of 2016, the Center for Online Education ranks Piedmont third in the category "Best Online Colleges in North Carolina". Piedmont offers both residential and online programs ranging from dual enrollment, undergraduate, and graduate degrees.
Piedmont is accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools and maintains membership in the American Association of Christian Colleges and Seminaries, and is seeking accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
History
SBBC Virtual Tour - A virtual tour that Pam and I filmed of the Spurgeon Baptist Bible College campus back in 2004, soon after Spurgeon merged with Piedmont International University.
In 1945, Charles Stevens and a group of North Carolina Baptist leaders founded Piedmont Bible Schools, Inc. and opened Piedmont Bible Institute. Three years later, the institute added two years of junior college. Although the academy associated with Piedmont Bible Schools, Inc. was discontinued in 1952 the Bible institute and the college continued.
In 1956 Piedmont completed the accreditation requirements of the Accrediting Association of Bible Institutes and Bible Colleges (now The Association for Biblical Higher Education). Their acceptance allowed Religious Education and Theology bachelor's degrees to be awarded, starting in 1957, with the acceptance of the State Department of Education.
The college added a graduate program in 1994 and joined the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) one year later. In 2004, the college merged with Spurgeon Baptist Bible College of Mulberry, Florida to create Piedmont’s Spurgeon School of Online Education. With this merge came several undergraduate and graduate programs available online in their entirety including a master's degree in Biblical Studies offered online in Spanish. The accreditation of two international branch campuses in restricted access nations sprang from partnerships with nationals in Asia and the Middle East. A 2008 merger with Atlantic Baptist Bible College of Chester, Virginia led to the establishment of the Atlantic Scholarship for Ministry Training. Foothills Christian College also merged with then Piedmont Baptist College and Graduate Schools in 2010. In 2012 Piedmont officially changed their name from Piedmont Baptist College and Graduate Schools to Piedmont International University. Then in March 2015, it was announced that as of May 1, 2015, Tennessee Temple University would also dissolve and merge with Piedmont.
References
External links
- Piedmont International University's website
