Students learn from APU faculty who possess professional and academic credentials. The integrated curriculum utilizes the student's work environment as a laboratory. Students interact with a professional staff committed to meeting the needs of working adults. The program caters exclusively to the adult learner who is involved in a church or parachurch ministry. Courses start continuously and do not exceed 24 students per class.
Instruction is seminar-style with an emphasis on student participation.
Additional credit may be awarded for work and life experience such as seminars, vocational, and military training. Several convenient locations are available. For this reason, the Center for Accelerated Degree Programs centers around an experiential learning concept, a unique alternative to the traditional approach. Experiential learning links curricula to past, present, or planned career activities. Through this method, students may earn up to 30 semester hours of credit for significant life experience by means of a formalized petition process called the portfolio.