While the state university system reduces quality with severe budget cuts imposed by the legislature with numerous political and programmitic constrains imposed by several layers of central authority, more nimble private universities see a profit opportunity:
Northeastern University of Boston is officially laying down stakes in Charlotte today smack in the middle of the city at Trade and Tryon streets.
It is the venerable private school's first venture outside Massachusetts, and likely won't be its last -- with campuses planned elsewhere, including in Seattle within a year.
In Charlotte, Northeastern will offer a doctorate in education and eight master's-level programs tied largely to the region's financial center. Those offerings will include masters of science degrees in finance, taxation, project management, sports leadership, leadership, education and health informatics.
The school is leasing 14,000 square feet of space in the 20-story 101 Independence Building at Trade and Tryon, including administrative offices on the ground floor near the entrance.
N.C. Lt. Gov. Walter and local officials plan to hold a ribbon-cutting this morning for the new uptown Charlotte campus.
Check back later for details.
Competition is good for the UNC system and more choice is good for students and all that, but the state government is actually celebrating the inadequacy of the state university system with a ribbon cutting ceremony? Weird.
Here is what they say about it in the Chronicle:
The campuses will deliver a hybrid model of education with both online and in-class learning, and with Boston-based professors often flying out to teach at the satellites.
With that in mind, Northeastern embarked on a vast recruiting effort for faculty members at a time when other universities were scaling back. Northeastern hired 261 new tenured faculty members in the last five years, and seeks to hire a total of 300. The university put an initial $60-million in the project, mostly to hire new faculty.
The university will employ academic advisers, career advising support, administrative staff, and a regional dean on each satellite campus.
The satellite campuses will draw on a number of Northeastern's degree programs, including those in business, engineering, health sciences and computer science, depending on the needs of the local economy. In Charlotte, for example, the university will offer a master's degree in health informatics, to align with the region's growing heath-care sector. ...Northeastern went to great lengths to ensure that a satellite campus would be a welcome sight in its targeted regions, interviewing hundreds of local leaders—from health professionals and industry executives to the Chamber of Commerce.
The business community told Northeastern that the city needed real faculty, real staff and real classes from another university in a city with the 3rd or 4th largest UNC institution already in operation. This should be considered an embarrassment to the state university system, not a cause for celebration.
