{"id":246727,"date":"2026-05-28T18:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T18:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/246727\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T18:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T18:58:07","slug":"northeastern-to-finalize-marymount-manhattan-college-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/246727\/","title":{"rendered":"Northeastern to finalize Marymount Manhattan College merger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northeastern\u2019s acquisition of Marymount Manhattan College, originally announced in May 2024<\/a>, is set to be finalized by the summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The New York State Department of Education approved the acquisition last May, and Northeastern expects to receive approval from the federal Department of Education no later than June 30, a Northeastern spokesperson told The Boston Globe<\/a>, concluding the two-year process of converting Marymount Manhattan College to Northeastern University \u2013 New York City.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Marymount Manhattan College, or MMC<\/a>, is a liberal arts college located in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Founded in 1936, MMC is known for its performing arts program and has a student body<\/a> of around 1,700.<\/p>\n

Northeastern sent its first cohort<\/a> of New York City Scholars students in fall 2025. Until the plan receives authorization from the federal Department of Education, MMC operates as its own entity and not yet as Northeastern University \u2013 New York City.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The merging process is time-consuming. The Department of Education conducts an in-depth investigation into the finances of institutions, both to ensure that Title IV funding \u2014 the part of the 1965 Higher Education Act<\/a> that establishes student aid programs and loans \u2014 is manageable, experts said in an interview with The Globe. Federal approval can take at least one year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In May 2024, Northeastern first announced<\/a> the acquisition of MMC, and the leadership of both institutions was still waiting for state and federal approval. In April , 2025, MMC announced<\/a> that\u00a0 the Middle States Commission on Higher Education<\/a> approved the merging request. The university did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the timeline of the merger.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By the end of May 2025, the New York State Education Department authorized<\/a> the plan for the merger.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In July 2024, the Department of Education released financial regulations<\/a> for universities acquiring other institutions to ensure that they are financially and administratively adequate for the acquisition, allowing Northeastern to finish its merging process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While President Donald Trump initiated massive layoffs<\/a> at the Department of Education, Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in March<\/a> that the administration is interested in \u201ceasing regulatory requirements\u201d for institutions interested in merging.<\/p>\n

Despite Northeastern\u2019s financial eligibility<\/a> and experience<\/a> in campus expansion, experts told The Globe\u2019s article that it is unclear why the process of acquiring MMC took two years.<\/p>\n

With 59%<\/a> of MMC\u2019s 2024 graduates being visual and performing arts majors, according to U.S. News & World Report, many students are anxious about whether Northeastern will scrub the institution of its artistic roots. But like many<\/a> small liberal arts colleges, it struggled<\/a> with declining enrollment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northeastern\u2019s acquisition of Marymount Manhattan College, originally announced in May 2024, is set to be finalized by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-246727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}