Dive Brief:
- Kentucky lawmakers this month authorized over $600,000 to study whether a new public university should open in the state’s Southeast region.
- Legislators approved the study in March. It will also examine if responsibility for traditional academic subjects should move from the Kentucky Community and Technical College System to the state’s regional public institutions.
- The evaluation — which consultant Ernst & Young will conduct — is due back to policymakers Dec. 1.
Dive Insight:
Conversations in the higher ed world are more often about which colleges are closing, not opening.
That’s in part because economic and pandemic-related stressors have squeezed institutions’ finances as many stare down a shrinking share of traditional college age students in parts of the country.
Thus, these are not ripe conditions for fledgling colleges.
But none of Kentucky’s eight public four-year universities are in the southeastern part of the state, “hindering its ability to make the same economic progress as other regions of the state,” according to a legislative resolution establishing the study.
That resolution says the state’s Council on Postsecondary Education will mull over three options — opening a new four-year public institution, establishing a satellite campus of a four-year public university, or acquiring an existing private college in that area.
Private nonprofit colleges in southeastern Kentucky include Union College, Alice Lloyd College and the University of Pikeville.
The council will forecast the needs of the state, including workforce trends, over the next two decades.
Lawmakers this month earmarked $632,952 to pay Ernst & Young for the study.