The Middle States Commission on Higher Education officially approved the merger of Drexel and Salus Universities on Monday, July 1. The commission’s approval has been anticipated by students and faculty of both schools for over a year.
This marks the beginning of the official “first step” in the merging process. When the Department of Education approves the merger, which is expected before the end of 2024, Salus University will no longer be a separate, degree-granting institution.
Salus will be known as Salus at Drexel University, Elkins Park and the majority of its programs will be operated under the Drexel College of Nursing and Health Professions. Salus’s school of optometry, which is the oldest of its kind in the country, will continue to operate separately from Drexel for accreditation reasons.
The merger’s finalization came days before Drexel’s President, John Fry, announced his upcoming move to Temple University. Fry, who has been instrumental in the merger and has been co-chairing the Drexel-Salus integration council since mid-2023, may leave for Temple before seeing it through to the end.
Salus University is a small, private, graduate university located in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. They specialize in degrees for students wishing to become healthcare professionals, such as speech language pathologists and blindness and low vision specialists.
Drexel and Salus officials have been clear in reassuring stakeholders that this merger will have little effect on the day-to-day operation of the university. In statements, they assured students that they would “continue to receive the same education” and donors that past and future “donations and existing endowments to specific programs will be honored.”
Following this merge, Salus university students and faculty will have access to Drexel’s research facilities and to partnerships with Drexel’s faculty members. In an interview in January, Salus University president Michael H. Mittelman described the merger as a “golden key” and imagines that it will lead to countless innovations in the healthcare field.
This is one of several steps Drexel has recently made to expand their educational offerings in the medical sector. In 2021, Drexel completed construction on an additional campus for medical students: the Drexel University College of Medicine at Tower Health.
Drexel is also currently partnering with Gattuso Development Partners to build a large life sciences building at the former site of the Buckley Recreational Field. The building has been controversial among students due to its large footprint and the fact that it will, for the most part, be leased to private companies.
The Salus-Drexel merger is one in a nationwide wave of mergers and acquisitions in the realm of higher education, many of which are driven by financial hardship in a post-Covid world. Merging into a larger institution is frequently a last resort for a school struggling to survive on its own, although President Mittleman claimed that Salus had other options and chose to merge with Drexel because of the opportunities it would create for collaboration.
More information and updates about the Drexel-Salus merger will be posted on the merger website, https://drexel.edu/about/salus. There will be a celebratory flag raising ceremony at the Elkins Park campus later in the summer.