Kennesaw State: The Strategy of the Post-Merger Regional University (Institution-Use License)
Kennesaw State: The Strategy of the Post-Merger Regional University (Institution-Use License)
Couldn't load pickup availability
(Higher Education Institution Case Study | PDF)
The 2015 consolidation with Southern Polytechnic State University gave Kennesaw State engineering capacity, a second campus, and research infrastructure in a single move. Over the following decade, KSU used those assets to scale beyond 51,000 students and achieve Carnegie R2 status.
KSU offers a useful case study for a broader question: can a regional university build research capacity without flagship funding?
This briefing distills verified data from institutional budget documents, state appropriations filings, NSF research rankings, and GMU's own strategic planning records into a structured, decision-grade format for senior institutional leaders.
The Read-Only version of the profile can be found here:
Access the full case study on Kennesaw State for Individual Use
What You'll Learn
Revenue Structure and Institutional Tradeoffs: How the university actually finances its operating model relative to peer institutions, where the underlying dependencies sit, and which parts of the model create long term leverage versus structural exposure.
Strategic Direction and Institutional Repositioning: What the institution has deliberately built, prioritized, scaled, or reoriented over the past several years across research strategy, workforce positioning, enrollment composition, industry alignment, operational structure, and institutional identity.
Structural Forces and Strategic Pressure Points: What the institution reveals about the broader pressures reshaping higher education, including demographic constraints, political exposure, research economics, labor market alignment, technological change, and the tradeoffs peer institutions are increasingly being forced to navigate.
Who It's For
Presidents, provosts, CFOs, and senior strategy teams at universities and higher education organizations benchmarking institutional strategy, research growth models, and financial resilience in a rapidly shifting funding and technology environment.
Share
