More than 30 years since launching its nursing program, Sacred Heart University will be opening a new School of Nursing for the fall semester.
Without raising tuition, the new designation is expected to help the program access greater resources and recognition. By transitioning into a nursing school, officials say the program will be able to increase its competitiveness both regionally and nationally.
“Due to our rapid growth, the Department of Nursing has become an increasingly more difficult and complex operation to administer,” said Laura Niesen de Abruna, provost and vice president of academic affairs, in a statement. “We”™ve reached the point where it just makes better logistic sense, particularly from an administrative point of view, to expand the nursing program into a separate school.”
About 1,100 undergraduate and graduate students will be enrolled in the school, with about 30 full-time faculty members.
Officials say the school is the natural next step for the program, which has steadily grown since it was established in 1980. Whereas 100 freshman entered the program last year, 150 students are scheduled to enroll this fall. About half of all students enrolled are online students.
