Ursinus College starts its first graduate program

For its 157-year-history, Ursinus College has educated only undergraduates. But that will change next year when the school starts its first graduate program.

About 85% of faculty voted in favor of the move into graduate education on Thursday, and the small liberal arts college, which enrolls about 1,370 undergraduates and is based in Collegeville, will start a master’s in exercise and sport science next May.

The move comes as colleges around the country are coping with a drop in the available pool of high school students, and consequently undergraduates and increasing financial pressures. As part of an ongoing effort to close a budget deficit, Ursinus in June eliminated 26 full-time and 10 part-time employees, representing 15% of the school’s nonfaculty staff. And last December, the school announced it would cut 29 full-time faculty positions — nearly a quarter.

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Most four-year colleges in the region already offer graduate programs, with few exceptions such as Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges, both small, highly selective liberal arts schools.

“This is an important moment in the history of Ursinus College and a natural next step in our evolution as an applied liberal arts institution,” Ursinus President Gundolf Graml said in a statement. “Our first graduate program builds on the strength of our health sciences programs and, importantly, extends the applied, professional and experiential approach at the heart of an Ursinus education to graduate study.”

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Graml said the college is planning to eventually offer more graduate programs and that a second one already is in the works, but he declined to provide further details. The college has appointed a new director of graduate studies.

Ursinus’ new master’s will be a 30-credit, 15-month online program, costing about $600 per credit for a total of $18,000, the school said. That is below the new annual federal cap on loans for graduate programs, Graml noted.

The college said it will give students currently enrolled in its undergraduate program in that field a direct path into a graduate program.

From 2020 to 2024, the college’s health sciences department awarded 188 undergraduate degrees, and more than half of those graduates pursued a graduate degree or certification at other colleges, the school said.

“We know that there’s student demand,” Graml said. “We see our students going out after graduation and continuing, and so we want to offer them an opportunity to continue that path at Ursinus.”

Serving as a potential enticement to stay at Ursinus, the program will allow undergraduates to take up to two graduate courses if they are preliminarily accepted into the program, the school said.

That means Ursinus undergraduates who enroll in the program might be able to finish more quickly than 15 months, said Kyle Beyer, associate professor of health sciences.

“We recognize this is something we could offer that would enhance our students’ learning and make them more competitive in the job market,” Beyer said.

An alum already emailed him, he said, asking how to enroll in the program.

The move into graduate programming will not require an increase in faculty, Graml said. Over time, it could boost revenue.

Ursinus has been running total operating losses for most of the last nine years, reaching $13.4 million in 2024 but falling to $4 million in 2025, financial records show.

Ursinus experienced a 10% decline in first-year enrollment last fall and a 6.4% decline in overall enrollment.

Graml said this year’s overall and freshman enrollment numbers won’t be available until after census later this month.