Dive Transient:
- Marymount Manhattan School, in New York Metropolis, has struck a deal to merge with Northeastern College, in Boston. Phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed.
- The boards of each establishments authorised the merger settlement, which is topic to closing approval by state and federal regulators, based on a letter to campus Wednesday from Northeastern President Joseph Aoun.
- As soon as the merger is full, Marymount Manhattan college students will transition into comparable Northeastern packages, at no extra cost, Aoun stated. The brand new entity, as soon as totally shaped, might be referred to as Northeastern College – New York Metropolis.
Dive Perception:
Marymount Manhattan isn’t the primary faculty that the 125-year-old Northeastern has introduced into its fold. With a watch towards a worldwide footprint, Northeastern has, as Aoun put it, “steadily expanded by a wide range of approaches.”
Its roster of mergers lately embody the New School of the Humanities in London and Mills School in Oakland, California, each of which confronted monetary struggles previous to becoming a member of forces with Northeastern.
“In every of these mergers, our establishments decided that we might obtain extra by becoming a member of collectively than we might accomplish individually,” Aoun stated. The president added that, by its enlargement, “we’re differentiating ourselves at a time of nice uncertainty in increased schooling.”
Marymount Manhattan was based in 1936 by a Catholic spiritual order as a two-year girls’s faculty and an extension of Marymount School, Tarrytown in Tarrytown, New York. It went on to grant bachelor’s levels, and by 1961 the establishment obtained an absolute constitution as an unbiased four-year faculty from the Regents of the College of the State of New York.
Immediately Marymount Manhattan is a liberal arts faculty recognized largely for its efficiency arts packages, as Aoun famous.
Aoun’s letter put Marymount Manhattan’s present undergraduate headcount at about 1,400. Fall enrollment dropped by greater than 25% to 1,608 college students from 2017 to 2022, per federal knowledge. In the meantime, enrollment at Northeastern’s flagship campus in Boston soared by slightly below 40% throughout that very same interval.
With Marymount Manhattan’s enrollment drops have come monetary stress. In fiscal 2023, the school’s complete working revenues of $45.6 million fell $14.9 million in need of its bills, whereas its complete belongings dropped 11.3% to $144 million, based on its newest audit report.
The faculty’s board started exploring its merger choices out of “issues about dropping enrollment and the numerous challenges dealing with small faculties within the U.S.,” based on a launch from Northeastern. For its half, Marymount Manhattan stated that by the merger, the “distinctive mission and artistic neighborhood that outline MMC might be amplified by the worldwide assets of Northeastern.”
With the Marymount Manhattan deal, Northeastern will add a 14th campus to its rising footprint. Aoun framed the merger partly by way of geography and alternative, noting a “very sturdy demand for lifelong studying in New York.”
“Past its standing as a monetary and media capital, New York is now residence to a fast-growing expertise sector, together with vital gamers reminiscent of Google, Amazon, and Microsoft,” Aoun stated.
The Northeastern-Marymount Manhattan deal is probably going simply considered one of many to come back. As enrollment drops and aggressive pressures enhance at smaller faculties and universities, many within the increased ed world count on mergers to escalate as a way for the struggling to outlive.
Most lately, the Ohio Christian faculties Bluffton College and College of Findlay struck a deal to merge, and Bay Path College introduced plans to amass a fellow Massachusetts personal establishment, Cambridge School.
For these faculties dealing with enrollment declines and potential future closure, in search of out a companion early — earlier than deep monetary misery units in — is vital forging a profitable merger deal, consultants have stated.
