The mission of Sessions College is to prepare art and design professionals by providing the highest quality of online arts education. The school prepares students for careers in art and design by providing a thorough training in the technical, creative, and critical thinking skills required for professional practice.

From early innovator to a renowned degree-granting college

Founded in 1997, Sessions College is one of the longest-running and an entirely online college. The college has evolved from a boutique design trainer provider to a widely recognized institution of higher education. As Sessions College envisions being the highest quality online art or design school, they have thousands of graduated students from more than 90 countries around the world.

The college has served a diverse international student body of adult learners meeting their creative goals and offering an accessible, affordable and excellent online program that advances their students careers. They develop their own proprietary program materials which are in addition to ensure currency and quality and also save students thousands of dollars in textbook costs. Sessions College for Professional Design has been a leader in online education with the best designing of courses, curriculum and teaching model for an online environment.

Programs Offered by Sessions

Sessions College offers Associate Degrees, certificates, and individual courses in Graphic Design, Web Design, Digital Media, Illustration, Advertising Design, Digital Photography, and Fine Art. Sessions College’s Admissions Advisors and Student Advisors are advocates for their prospective and current students. They are all trained and experienced designers who have been in their shoes, and share the same passions. From the first inquiry to graduation, the team of advisors is there to keep students motivated and on track to success.

Industry-leading Faculty of Professional Designers

According to Sessions College, the success is a tribute to the teamwork of many dedicated, talented and creative faculties and staff members serving the purpose over many years. The faculty of more than 30 industry leading artists and designers are deeply engaged in providing high quality critique and work hard to make the programs of the college as effective as possible. The faculty consists of independent designers, illustrators, artists, photographers and animators with many years of experience in design and publishing.

Everyone at Sessions College is focused on the mission of preparing design professionals. The graduates of the college have high rates of creative employment and are effective in fulfilling the goal of becoming freelance designers.  A prominent example of a recent successful alumnus is Dawn Nicole who is a lettering artist, blogger and author of several successful books on hand lettering.

Accreditation, Approvals and Recognitions

Accreditation is incredibly important for online schools, as it gives consumers a stamp of quality assurance and it gives schools a benchmark against generally accepted standards and a tool for self-improvement. Sessions College has been accredited by the DEAC (the Distance Education Accrediting Commission) since 2001. DEAC is a national accreditor recognized by the US Department of Education and CHEA, and it’s the only accreditor that specializes in online education. The College is also regionally accredited at the certificate level by Middle States Commission on Secondary Schools, a division of one of the oldest regional accreditation agencies in the United States. They are licensed by the Arizona State Board for Private Postsecondary Education.

The College is the honored recipient of several awards and recognitions for quality in online education. They have received appreciations for excellence in design education, online education, and educational value. Sessions College has won United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) awards four times in ten years. The College is also recognized as a top graphic design school by GDUSA (Graphic Design USA). They are ranked by the US Department of Education as the most affordable colleges, and also Bestcolleges.com rated Sessions College among its top 100 online schools, and top 50 colleges offering online Associate Degree programs.

About the School President, Gordon Drummond

The President of Sessions College of Professional Design is Gordon Drummond. Gordon always focuses at academic excellence, program growth, institutional improvement and regulatory compliance in an increasingly competitive online arts education space. Gordon Drummond joined Sessions College in February 2001, where he served as a Director of Curriculum and Chief Academic Officer before becoming President. Outside of Sessions College, Gordon has extensive experience in school accreditation. Since 2007 he has served on the Middle States Association Commission on Secondary Schools, where he was Commission Chair from 2013-15 and served on the MSA Board of Trustees. Since June 2017, he has served on the board of the Distance Education Accreditation Commission (DEAC). Gordon has presented seminars on online education at conferences including Macworld, DEAC, CCA, Angel Learning, Surtex, and the Graphic Artist’s Guild. He holds an MA in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

“Sessions College has always had a mission to provide quality, career-focused online design education. In recent years we have dramatically expanded our degree and certificate programs as a Title IV eligible institution,” stated Mr. Drummond.  “As President, it’s my goal to help us reach more students, improve and expand our educational programs, and deliver more efficient, high-quality student services.”