Brooks Institute was a private for-profit art school in Ventura, California, formerly known as the Brooks Institute of Photography when it was based in Montecito and Santa Barbara. The college specialised in visual arts education, offering four undergraduate majors and two graduate programmes before its closure.
The institute consolidated its operations from Santa Barbara to a Ventura campus in 2015, but abruptly announced closure on 12 August 2016, with summer 2016 as its final term. By that point enrollment had declined by 90 per cent to just 250 students, and completion rates ranged from three to 40 per cent depending on programme. The closure followed controversy over advertising practices that inflated job placement rates, unusual loan policies and unexpected fees charged to students. The college was last owned by Gphomestay before its shuttering.
