Starting with a small evening program, in the early 1980s day classes were later added and larger facilities were obtained.
In 1985 the school moved to a larger campus in Tempe due to continued growth in its student population.
In 1987 the Arizona State Board for Private Post-secondary Education and NATTS granted the school the approval to offer an Associate of Arts (AA) degree in Graphic Design and in 1991, the Bachelor of Arts degree in Graphic Design.
The United States Department of Education conducted a 2003 Program Review of Collins College and found several serious problems with the school's administration of federal financial aid programs including: "many students failed to meet the attendance threshold...[and that the College's] practice of not considering failed courses as part of the [cumulative GPA] at the time that students fail the course...may...be falsely permitting those students to remain eligible for Title IV disbursements"[1] and "Collins College had used "a coordinated subterfuge to under-report the effect" of federal financial aid dollars disbursed in order to show compliance with the so-called 90/10 Rule.
In January 2009 the majority of the main campus in Tempe was moved to a new location nearby in southeast Phoenix in the Cotton Center.