Partnerships and Mergers

Despite selling six properties to Trocaire College worth nearly $2 million, Medaille University will not be acquired after all, placing its 148-year-old legacy in limbo.

With 285 first-year students and 21 transfers, Hampshire College follows four years of improving enrollment since its nearly fatal 2019 crash.

Mergers, acquisitions, partnerships—oh my! Alliances can be highly individualized depending on each institution's unique set of challenges. However, these trends can help explain what's going on.

Citing pandemic issues and poor enrollment numbers, Buffalo-based Medaille University marks another private school in the Northeast too financially strapped to continue operations. Instead of closing, however, they're merging.

College mergers may again pick up steam as higher ed leaders navigate the twin financial upheavals of COVID and a potential recession.

It has embraced “hybrid learning and turned it on its ears.” And it is incredibly open-minded when it comes to collaboration, something that can be a lesson for other institutions and programs struggling to make headway.