Santa Barbara County’s first program to offer bachelor’s degrees in nursing will open in 2012 under the leadership of CSU Channel Islands and Cottage Health System, university and hospital officials announced July 9.

The program will be in a facility next to Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital, one of three Cottage hospitals in Santa Barbara County. It will admit up to 22 students per year; the CSUCI program already enrolls 33 people in each class at its campus outside of Camarillo.

Cottage will pay for the expansion, with a commitment of $6 million over 10 years.

“It takes that kind of commitment to make a college program grow and thrive and be successful, and the Cottage board has been very supportive,” Cottage Health System President Ron Werft said during a Friday afternoon press conference outside of Cottage’s Santa Barbara headquarters.

Community colleges across the region offer nursing degrees, but CSUCI is the only one to offer a bachelor’s in nursing.

The new CSUCI Nursing Program at Cottage Health System will enroll its first students in the spring of 2012 and graduate its first class in 2014.