Elon University officials have announced that the university will merge with Queens University in Charlotte, a process that the two private universities have targeted for completion by the summer of 2026.
The successor institution – which both Elon and Queens University officials describe a merger –will be operated by Elon University and governed by a 47-member board of trustees that will include 37 Elon trustees and 10 trustees representing Queens University.
The partnership is intended to strengthen the resources of the two private nonprofit universities, Elon University officials said Tuesday in a news release. Details will be finalized in the coming months.
“We are definitely stronger together,” Elon University President Dr. Connie Book said of the partnership with Queens University. “This bold decision by our universities ensures that, in 100 years, the founders’ missions can continue to thrive. This is a decision that creates strength and it’s built on educational opportunity as the necessary seed for a community’s future.”
Once the merger is complete, Queens University could have a new name, which Book and Queens University acting president Jesse Cureton emphasized would honor Queens University’s legacy.
“We’re committed to having the Queens name as part of the new naming structure,” Book told The Charlotte Observer. “Queens has a special place in the heart of the city because of its legacy there and its contributions to higher education, so we’ll want the new name to preserve that.”
The merger plan was unanimously approved by the boards of trustees for both Elon and Queens universities, according to Elon University officials.
Book announced the forthcoming partnership to Elon University students in prerecorded video presented during a “College Coffee” at McKinnon Hall on Elon’s campus Tuesday morning.
Queens University appears to be the primary beneficiary of the partnership, based on its current financial position. Its expenses ($109 million) outpaced revenue ($88.4 million) by more than $20 million in 2023, the most recent calendar year for which federal tax returns are available for the private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) Queens University.
By comparison, Elon University, also a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3)organization, reported approximately $413 million in revenue, $398 million in expenses, $302 million in liabilities, and $1.21 billion in total assets for the 2024 calendar year, based on the latest tax returns it has filed with the Internal Revenue Service.
Offering more than 70 undergraduate majors, Elon University had 7,289 undergraduate and graduate students from 49 U.S. states and 52 countries enrolled as of the 2024-25 academic year, the latest period for which the figures are available from the university.
Elon University is currently ranked No. 121 among national universities this year by U.S. News & World’s Report. Elon is currently ranked No. 1 for learning communities and No. 2 for service learning opportunities and senior capstone experiences, according to the latest edition of Best Colleges published by U.S. News & World Report.
With 51 undergraduate majors, Queens University had 1,559 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled as of the 2024-25 academic year. Queens University tied for No.17 among regional universities in the South this year, according to the current annual edition of Best Colleges published by U.S. News & World Report.
Elon’s second expansion in Charlotte area in recent years
Elon University previously expanded to the Queen City, opening its Charlotte Regional Center in September 2023.
The Charlotte Regional Center currently offers sports management classes, as well as law courses through Elon’s part-time “Law Flex Program.” Elon University also plans to launch a new physician assistant program in 2027 that will be housed at the Charlotte Regional Center, The Charlotte Observer reported.
Elon University officials pointed to growing shortages of nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and lawyers in the Charlotte region, along with increasing demand for graduate-level certificate programs, as part of the motivation for partnering with Queens University.
“The combined strengths of Elon and Queens will accelerate new programs across vital industries, while also expanding access to the city’s only law school,” Elon University officials said Tuesday in a news release.
Students at Elon and Queens will now be allowed to enroll in courses that are offered exclusively by the partner institution, The Charlotte Observer reported Tuesday. The newly-minted partnership also means that students at Elon’s Charlotte Regional Center will be able to use libraries and fitness centers at Queens University, which is about three miles from Elon’s regional center, Book said.
Federal spending priorities, decline in birth rates driving university mergers and closures
Elon University officials reported earlier this year that the university could lose millions in federal funding for research, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, and other grant awards as a result of President Donald Trump’s plans to curtail education spending and other policy changes under the Trump Administration.
Yet the planned merger between Elon and Queens reflects a trend in U.S. higher education that analysts say began at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Similar mergers have recently been announced (between Kean University and New Jersey City University in New Jersey); or are being contemplated (in Pennsylvania), according to multiple news reports.
Approximately 83 U.S. public and private nonprofit colleges and universities have closed, merged, or announced plans to merge since 2020, according to Best Colleges, a data analytics firm specializing in education that appears to have no affiliation with U.S. News & World Report.
The university closures and mergers have been attributed to enrollment declines that began with the Covid-19 pandemic and have continued since, as well as population trends (i.e., declining birth rates and the proportion of college-age students) and higher operating costs for colleges and universities, according to the data analytics firm.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia estimated in late 2024 that up to 80 U.S. colleges and universities could close within the next year, which it attributed to the shrinking birth rate and subsequent college “enrollment cliff,” according to Best Colleges.
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A separate analysis published in November 2024 by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia also attributed the coming “enrollment cliff” to “low graduation rates and a decline in students enrolling in a college or university immediately after graduation from high school, which dropped from 70 to 62 percent between 2013 and 2023, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Overall, undergraduate enrollment in U.S. universities and colleges declined by about 196,000 students between the fall of 2019 (when 16.2 million undergraduates were enrolled) and the fall of 2024 (when approximately 16 million students were enrolled), according to data compiled by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center and cited by Best Colleges.
The cost of a university education and potential student loan debt has been cited as another major factor behind declining enrollment.
Pew Research Center reported in May 2024 that 49 percent of 5,203 U.S. adults surveyed in late 2023 said its les important to have a four-year college degree to get a job than it was 20 years earlier; and only 47 percent said the cost to attend college was worth it only if they didn’t incur student loan debt.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed at the time that 54 percent of workers between the ages of 25 and 34 had no college degree, though workers with the highest education levels continued to have the highest median weekly earnings.
Pew Research Center also reported a decline in college enrollment among 18 to 24 year-olds: the percentage of males who enrolled in college after graduating from high school declined from 47 percent in 2011 to 39 percent in 2023; and the percentage of female high school graduates enrolling in college declined from 52 to 48 percent during the same period.
Queens University experienced a 37 percent declined in enrollment between 2011 and 2024, which has been attributed partly to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Elon University reported last month that the size of this year’s freshman class (1,517 students) is 11.6 percent smaller than last year’s freshman class (1,718 students). Elon’s vice president for enrollment Greg Zaiser also attributed the enrollment decline to a drop in the birth rate that began at the height of the Great Recession in 2008.
“We’re going to have to be stronger together and have a partner that can allow us to be more stable,” Cureton said of the partnership between Queens and Elon universities.
Elon and Queens representatives to hold listening sessions in Charlotte this fall
“This merger with Queens unites two institutions deeply connected to student success, and together, we will expand relevant, high-impact programs that connect academic excellence with real-world opportunity in service to the Charlotte region,” Book said in a release announcing the merger on Tuesday afternoon.
The merger with Elon University furthers Queens University’s vision of being a leader in shaping the region and nation through “thought leadership,” Cureton said in the release. “This merger with Elon – a North Star for Queens for many years – accelerates that vision,” he said. “It ensures continuity for our students and faculty while creating bold new opportunities to expand our impact and strengthen Charlotte’s role as a hub for higher education – because in today’s higher education environment, collaboration is not only smart, but essential.”
Representatives from Elon and Queens universities plan to launch a “listening tour” in Charlotte this fall to hear input that will “inform ongoing decisions and help shape a shared future grounded in Charlotte’s unique needs and aspirations as a vibrant city where education, equity, and economic opportunity go hand in hand,” according to the Elon University news release.
History of the two universities
Elon University originally opened in the county seat in 1852 as Graham Institute, a school for boys founded by Rev. John R. Holt, a minister of the Christian Church (the predecessor to the United Church of Christ). The school was subsequently chartered as the co-educational Graham College in 1859 and its name was changed to Graham Normal College in 1881. In 1889, the school was moved to a wooded site five miles west of Burlington that had been historically occupied by the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation (OBSN), according a timeline of the history from Elon University.
Though most of the campus was destroyed by fire in 1923, the then-Elon College was eventually rebuilt and expanded, becoming Elon University in 2001. That same year, the name of the township in which the university is situated was changed from the Town of Elon College to the Town of Elon, according to a timeline of the history from Elon University.
The university progressed to having no official religious affiliation around the mid-1950s, according to From a Grove of Oaks: The Story of Elon University by Elon University historian Dr. George Troxler.
Though briefly preceded by “Queens College at Kingston,” the institution that later became Queens University was founded in 1857 as the Charlotte Female Institute, an all-girls school. It later operated as the Seminary for Girls and Presbyterian Female College between 1891 and 1912, when it became Queens College, also an all-girls college before transitioning to a co-ed college during the second half of the 20th Century. In 2002, its name was changed to Queens University, according to a timeline of the history from that university.
For more information, visit: www.elonandqueens.org
