Higher education institutions require revenues to operate and these typically come from sources such as student enrollments (tuition/fees), grants, subsidies, and government support. In the face of inconsistent revenue sources, increasing financial pressures, and enrollment declines, some higher education institutions turn to mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to prevent school closure.  M & A arrangements can keep campus doors open, preventing calamitous academic and financial situations for students —who without the option of their campus remaining open, trap many with student debt, nowhere to transfer their college credits, and no pathway to a credential.

Mergers and acquisitions include consolidations and integrations. These are situations in which public regional higher education institutions within a state system of higher education (e.g., Georgia, Texas, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania) are consolidated to be a branch campus or outreach center of another public institution in the system, or to become a newly integrated university.

Depending on the size and goals of the institutions involved, these processes may be as simple as a larger university absorbing a smaller college. These arrangements may require many stages of negotiations. Typical stages (can occur over months to years) include:

• Planning by administration and governing boards around risk-benefit analysis, a consolidation timeline, creation of needed communication channels and guidelines for stakeholders.
• Selection by governing boards of personnel to lead the merger process, clarify the vision for the merger, and outline required resources.
• Crafting the new governance plan with multiple regulatory bodies; e.g., governing boards of the merging colleges, accreditors, and representatives from the government including the U.S. Department of Education and sometimes state government.
• Implementing the plan to include identifying the name and brand, the oversight and administrative services, and the new college or university's leadership and governance structure.
• Once operational, the new institution addresses opportunities and issues related to the new identity and culture, and often develops needed new services and programs.

When the Pennsylvania State Systen of Higher Education (PASSHE) conducted its university integration effort through structural change (constructing co-equal partnerships), it moved from 14 universities in 2018 to 10 in 2022. There were four non-negotiable guides:

• Maintain the partner universities’ distinctive identities and brands (e.g.,  logos, colors, name parts) in order to retain the partner universities’ history, regional cultures and economies, and dedicated employees and alumni.
• Maintain sports teams and related organizations (athletes, band members, fans, students in associated educational programs such as sports management)to maintain the universities’ identities which has proven to be critical to preserving student enrollments,  improved student outcomes, and donor funding.
• Minimize reliance on fully online education since PASSHE universities attract undergraduates seeking residential higher education's academic and co-curricular advantages
• Maintain viable instructional activity at each campus, recognizing that closure was not an option politically and there were potential impacts on local communities where campuses were lead employers (often the only four-year educational option for place-bound students not interested in fully online education).

Enabling state statute was required to authorize the PASSHE Board to change its corporate structure (though not to close universities). The Board established parameters for the planning process:

• Defined an integrated university as one bringing two or more independently accredited institutions together into a new accredited entity with a single leadership team, faculty, staff, academic program, enrollment management strategy, budget, and a reporting relationship through the Chancellor to the Board.
• Required the process to be rigorously analytical, data-driven, and time-limited in recognition of the system’s financial exigency and applicable industry averages. Anty resulting new integrated university would enroll its first cohort of students in Fall 2022.
• Established high-level design principles requiring plans to improve student outcomes and ensure sustainable university operations.
• Focus initial attention on three regionally proximate candidate combinations.

See: Chain Buying among Higher Education Institutions