State System of Higher Education Colleges in Pennsylvania
- The following institutions are state-owned universities: Bloomsburg, California, Clarion, Cheney, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities. They are governed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
State-related institutions are Penn State, the University of Pittsburgh, Temple University and Lincoln University. While maintaining autonomy and self-governance, these universities receive significant funding from the commonwealth.
Each member university was founded in the 19th century and operated independently until joining the system. Most were originally founded as land grant colleges or as normal schools--teaching colleges, as they were referred to at the time. - Of the state-owned universities, Bloomsburg, Indiana and Slippery Rock offer associate, undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees. California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg and West Chester confer associate, bachelor's and master's degrees. State-related universities such as Lincoln, Pittsburgh, Penn State and Temple offer the full complement of degrees through the doctoral level.
Each university also excels in one or more areas of study. For example, Bloomsburg is noted for its speech pathology and audiology program, while Slippery Rock is noteworthy for its physical education curriculum. - While linked together by the State System of Higher Education, individual schools vary widely in the number of students who attend. Cheyney and Mansfield each enroll fewer than 5,000 students at their campuses, as of 2011. California, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Lock Haven, Millersville, Shippensburg and Slippery Rock each enroll between 5,000 and 10,000 students at all levels. The largest universities--Bloomsburg, Indiana, Kutztown and West Chester--boast enrollments in excess of 10,000.
The state-related universities have tens of thousands of students attending classes at both their main campuses and at satellite sites across Pennsylvania. - While the emphasis is still on live classroom instruction, most of the state-owned and -related universities offer a wide range of continuing and distance education options. Evening and weekend classes, intensive sessions during the summer and teleconferencing are often chosen by adult learners with career and family obligations. Additionally, off-campus practicums are required for several areas of study, particularly in health-related curricula. Study-abroad programs are offered for those students whose areas of study are enhanced by a semester or a full year in a foreign country.