SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 Lackawanna College has received final approval from the U.S. Department of Education to complete its merger with Philadelphia’s Peirce College, creating what the school says is Pennsylvania’s largest private, nonprofit, open-enrollment undergraduate institution.<\/p>\n
College officials announced Wednesday that the merger officially took effect July 1, concluding a two-year integration process that began after the institutions formalized their agreement in August 2024.<\/p>\n
“This is a tremendous milestone in the history of Lackawanna College, and I’m excited for the new opportunities and pathways this creates for our students,” said Dr. Jill A. Murray, president and chief innovation officer of Lackawanna College. “For more than a century, Peirce College has stood as a model of access, innovation and unwavering commitment to student success. Lackawanna College is honored to carry forward the mission, spirit and values that defined Peirce College as we move forward together.”<\/p>\n
With the merger complete, Lackawanna College said it now serves more than 8,000 students annually across 11 locations throughout Pennsylvania and online.<\/p>\n
Peirce College will now operate as Lackawanna College \u2013 Philadelphia Center, while students pursuing fully online undergraduate and graduate degrees will be enrolled through the newly created Peirce School of Online Education.<\/p>\n
The idea of combining the two colleges first emerged in June 2023, as both institutions sought to expand access to higher education and workforce training across Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
College officials said the merger comes during a period of significant growth for Lackawanna College. In recent years, the institution has opened three skilled trades centers across central and western Pennsylvania, broken ground on its new Center for Technology Innovation, and accepted an invitation to join the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC), an NCAA Division II conference.<\/p>\n
Founded in 1894, Lackawanna College offers more than 60 academic programs, including bachelor’s and associate degrees, continuing education and professional certificate programs. The college has increasingly focused on workforce development in healthcare, finance, technology and the skilled trades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 Lackawanna College has received final approval from the U.S. Department of Education to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-238612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}