Soka University of America moves to acquire Middlebury College’s international studies institute

“Dive Brief: Soka University of America officials are mulling an acquisition of Middlebury College's graduate international studies campus in California and some of its master’s programs for an undisclosed price. The two private nonprofits have kicked off exclusive negotiations, leaders of both institutions said Monday. Both boards have approved a letter of intent and are conducting due diligence into the final details of a potential deal. Last year, Middlebury opted to wind down in-person programs and two online programs at its Institute of International Studies at Monterey. In April, the institute announced it would sunset its remaining online programs in summer 2027. Dive Insight: For SUA, an acquisition of the Middlebury Institute would expand its graduate offerings and give it a second campus, in Monterey, some 370 miles north of its primary campus in the Irvine, California, area . If a deal goes through, SUA plans to call the new campus “ Monterey Institute of International Studies at Soka University of America .” And the university could begin recruiting students as early as this summer, according to an FAQ page on the acquisition. The purchase would build on an existing partnership struck three years ago between the two institutions that offered SUA students an accelerated path into Middlebury Institute’s graduate programs along with tuition reduction. The two colleges have been discussing a potential acquisition of Middlebury iInstitute for several months, Middlebury leaders said Monday. Along with purchasing the campus, SUA is interested in acquiring the rights to continue a sizable portion of Middlebury Institute’s programs — specifically those in nonproliferation studies, threat intelligence, translation and localization management, and international policy and development. Final details are still under negotiation. “ We are pursuing the potential purchase because we believe SUA can carry these programs forward to advance our shared mission,” SUA President Ed Feasel said in a Monday community message . All of the Middlebury Institute's degree programs stopped enrolling new students either last year or this spring. As previously promised, current students have until summer 2027 to complete their programs, Middlebury leaders said. SUA didn’t reveal its offer price, but said in the FAQ page that the purchase wouldn’t affect its existing budget or programs. The Middlebury Institute of International Studies was founded in 1955 and acquired in 2010 as a graduate arm of Middlebury College, a liberal arts institution in Vermont. When Middlebury decided to end the institute's in-person programs last year, college leaders cited 15 years of fluctuating enrollment and a steep decline in students after the COVID-19 pandemic that tracked with national enrollment declines in resident graduate programs. “This has left MIIS’s programs operating with significant deficits for the last several years,” senior leaders said at the time. In fall 2024, the Middlebury Institute had 526 students, down 23.5% from five years prior, according to federal data. SUA, founded by Japanese educator and philosopher Daisaku Ikeda in 1987, opened its current campus in 2001. The university was modeled after Japan’s Soka school system that incorporates humanistic and Buddhist principles, though the university’s curriculum is nonsectarian. The university says its primary source of funding is Soka Gakkai, a lay Buddhist organization of which Ikeda was a prominent leader until his death in 2023. Between 2019 and 2014, SUA’s fall enrollment rose over 18% to 495 students, most of them undergraduates, according to federal data.

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