Dive Temporary:
- New Jersey Metropolis College will pursue a merger with one other public establishment within the state, Kean College, per a choice by NJCU’s board of trustees.
- NJCU and Kean officers plan to signal a letter of intent and open up a proper due diligence course of within the coming weeks, NJCU Interim President Andrés Acebo stated in a neighborhood message.
- Early final yr, a state-appointed monitor directed the struggling NJCU to discover a monetary accomplice. The choice of Kean as a merger accomplice meets the state-issued benchmark, Acebo and the board stated.
Dive Perception:
Slightly below three years in the past, NJCU declared a monetary emergency, attributing the disaster to funding shortfalls and years of declining enrollment.
For years, the college had tried boosting scholarships, including applications, spending extra on pupil companies and investing in actual property enlargement initiatives — all in an effort to reverse its enrollment declines. These efforts not solely failed at their said goal, they “as an alternative served to dramatically enhance NJCU’s bills,” New Jersey’s comptroller’s workplace stated in 2023.
The identical report alleged that the college “possible” broke federal regulation by utilizing emergency pandemic aid funding to help an current scholarship program. It additionally stated directors had failed to tell NJCU’s board of the college’s monetary scenario or formulate a plan to deal with its price range hole.
The dire scenario led to management modifications and a state-appointed monitor to assist shepherd NJCU to monetary sustainability.
By final fall, NJCU’s funds had been already enhancing. In November, Fitch Rankings lifted the college’s outlook from destructive to steady.
Analysts on the time cited “vital progress towards attaining fiscal steadiness regardless of continued stress on pupil enrollment.” That enchancment was due largely to value cuts at NJCU in addition to state stabilization support, which totaled $17 million break up between fiscal years 2024 and 2025.
NJCU has additionally “reinvested in our amenities, stabilized our operations, and broadened our enrollment pipeline,” Acebo stated in his message Wednesday.
But the college remains to be scuffling with declining enrollment. Fall headcount declined to five,833 college students in 2023, down 10.8% in contrast with the yr earlier than and 27% decrease than 2018 ranges, in keeping with federal information. NJ.com reported that in fall 2024, the college’s enrollment of first-year, full-time college students rose 3% and transfers surged a whopping 28%, whereas whole enrollment fell one other 6%.
NJCU’s potential merger accomplice has a far bigger pupil physique. Kean had 13,352 college students in fall 2023, which has declined modestly — by 5% — from 5 years in the past.
Acebo stated that the potential for merging with Kean, round 12 miles from NJCU, affords NJCU the chance to “develop our tutorial horizons and deepen our neighborhood affect.”
In a joint assertion Thursday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Secretary of Larger Training Brian Bridges stated that they had been “inspired by the forward-moving progress at NJCU” and stated they had been dedicated to the establishment’s future, because it supplies larger training entry to regional college students.
“The NJCU Board’s intent to pursue a strategic merger with Kean College continues this dedication and marks the start of an intensive and deliberative course of to unify these mission-aligned establishments,” the officers stated.