Thomas Aquinas College gets green light for New England campus

Thomas Aquinas College received approval from the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education to start a branch campus in western Massachusetts — setting the stage for Thomas Aquinas College, New England, to welcome students in fall 2019. 

“This is a great achievement,” college President Michael McLean said in a statement. “We are grateful to the board for its thoughtful review, and we are grateful to God for the opportunity to bring Thomas Aquinas College’s unique and highly regarded academic program to a region known for quality higher education.”

The process to expand started in the spring 2017 and included an application process conducted by the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education and academic affairs staff at the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.  

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In May 2017, the National Christian Foundation gave Thomas Aquinas College the former campus of a preparatory school in Northfield, Massachusetts, which closed in 2005. The historic property, located near the Connecticut River, consists of about 100 acres of land and includes residence halls, a library, a chapel, a gymnasium and classroom and administrative space. 

Now that it has the board's approval, the college is now looking to extend its accreditation to the New England campus. The university expects that will be approved within the next couple of months. 

“Pending the approval of the WASC Senior College and University Commission, we will be able to begin admitting students in New England,” McLean said in a statement. “In the meantime, we are accepting student applications and, of course, friends’ donations to cover the costs of readying the campus for student use.”

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College officials are making other preparations for the opening of the branch campus.

“We have already selected our initial faculty for New England, and those tutors and their families will, no doubt, begin to make moving plans,” McLean said. 

Thomas Aquinas College was founded in 1969 and opened its doors to students on a leased campus in Calabasas in the fall of 1971 and relocated to the campus near Santa Paula in 1978. From its first year of operation, the four-year, co-educational, Catholic school has attracted students from across the United States and abroad. It achieved full enrollment in 2005, and waiting lists have been growing in the years since.

“At a time when more than a few liberal arts colleges have had to close, it is a testament to the excellence of Thomas Aquinas College's unique programs of Catholic liberal education and to its good stewardship that the school had received approval to operate a second campus,” said R. Scott Turicchi, chairman of the college’s board of governors, in a statement.

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