Drexel and Salus Universities have decided to proceed with a merger

The presidents of Drexel and Salus Universities announced Tuesday that they will proceed with a merger of the two institutions and will aim to have it take effect next summer.

The boards of both institutions have given approval, pending the necessary regulatory approvals, including consideration by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the accrediting body.

The two colleges said in April that they were exploring “an affiliation” that would link the schools’ graduate health sciences education and clinical practice programs.

» READ MORE: Drexel and Salus universities are exploring an ‘affiliation’ — what could be the latest pairing of local schools

“This is going to be a really nice fit,” said John A. Fry, president of Drexel, one of the largest private universities in the Philadelphia region, with 23,200 students. “We are so complementary in our programs. The physician assistants program is really the only overlap, and they’re so much in demand. We can’t produce enough.”

Michael Mittelman, president of Salus, a small, private health sciences university based in Elkins Park that enrolls more than 1,100 students, said for that reason, he didn’t anticipate layoffs in the teaching force. Fry said there may be some consolidation of administrations over time, hopefully through retirements or attrition.

Salus’ clinics are expected to remain intact, too. The university has three clinical facilities in Montgomery County and Philadelphia, including in East Oak Lane and Chestnut Hill, that provide vision, hearing, and balance, speech-language pathology, and occupational therapy services.

“Our programs require certain labs and clinics,” Mittelman said. “It would be very expensive to move that right off the bat.”

» READ MORE: Drexel consolidates its health-related schools to a new University City building so students feel more connected

What will happen with Salus’ main campus in Elkins Park will be a topic addressed by a newly formed integration council composed of faculty and professional staff from both universities. That council will develop a plan on how and when academic programs and operational units at Salus will become part of Drexel.

Salus was founded in 1919 as the Pennsylvania College of Optometry, and both Fry and Mittelman said that legacy and name will be preserved. What will happen with the Salus name, which is more recent, is uncertain.

“Drexel has been extremely respectful of our legacy and our heritage,” Mittelman said.

Fry in April said the new affiliation would “would further solidify Drexel’s place as a leader in preparing future interprofessional health sciences practitioners by adding renowned Salus graduate degree programs such as optometry, audiology, blindness and low-vision studies, speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, and orthotics and prosthetics.”

Meanwhile, Drexel already has medical, biomedical, public health, nursing, and health professions programs.

Salus’ president also touted the benefits in April, including an expansion in research collaboration and grant funding. Students would gain access to Drexel’s facilities, including its recently opened health sciences building, as well as its signature co-op program that places students in paid, six-month work experiences as part of their education.

The Salus announcement came just days after Standard & Poor’s knocked Drexel’s credit rating out of the A-range, to BBB+ from A-. S&P cited Drexel’s weakened financials after it took on a $478 million operating lease for its new health sciences building in University City. The lease is effectively a form of debt.

The new merger would be the latest pairing of local universities looking to solidify their positions in an increasingly competitive higher education marketplace, with the number of available high school graduates on the decline and a further dip expected in a couple of years.

“This is an industry, higher education and health care, that continues to look for consolidation and partnership-based opportunities,” Fry said.

Earlier this year, St. Joseph’s University announced it had a “definitive agreement” to merge with the Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences in Lancaster, the school founded by Lancaster General Hospital, which is the largest hospital in Lancaster County and now owned by the University of Pennsylvania. That announcement came less than a year after the Catholic institution merged with the former University of the Sciences. Also last July, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education merged six of its universities into two new entities.

In 2017, Thomas Jefferson University merged with the former Philadelphia University.

Drexel isn’t new to affiliations, either. In 2011, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the oldest natural history museum in the nation, became a part of Drexel.

And at least one other local college, Cabrini University, has been in the hunt for a local partner. With a mounting deficit last year, the university announced it was eliminating academic leadership positions, including that of the provost. It also laid off some faculty in December, and its president, Helen Drinan, said the school was exploring a merger.

Unlike the situation at Cabrini, Salus has not been losing money, at least not in the last two years. It had operating income of $2.35 million on revenue of $55 million in fiscal year 2022, and operating income of $2.9 million on operating revenue of $54 million the year before, according to its most recent financial statements.

Staff writer Harold Brubaker contributed to this article.