By Joe Barron

A small college in Jenkintown is working to plug the education gap between employers’ needs and the workers of the future.

With about 35 full-time faculty members, a student body of just under 700, and a campus of 30 park-like acres, Manor College is poised to introduce 15 new bachelor’s degree programs beginning in the fall.

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The courses of study, which are geared toward putting students on rewarding career paths, cover business administration, computers and information systems, health services, sports management, veterinary practice management, education, criminal justice and pre-law.

“Our intent was to be very much career-ready with our program,” Calandra Lockhart, vice president of academic affairs, said in a telephone interview June 14. “When our students leave here, they have all the background and preparation they need for a career.”

Each of the 15 programs is a three-in-one offering, Lockhart said, since, in addition to their bachelor’s degree, students will also receive an associate degree and a workforce certification resulting from an internship, or an apprenticeship, or both.

“Our students can now build on their knowledge and skills to create an individualized learning pathway, which maximizes their Manor experience,” Lockhart said. “The possibilities are endless.”

Planning for the expanded curriculum began three years ago, when Jonathan Peri became president of what then Manor Junior College. Dropping the word “Junior” from the school’s name required jumping through a number of bureaucratic hoops, including approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, as well as accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

“There’s multiple layers, and there’s a lot of time and process,” Peri said. “There’s multiple entities involved. And here we are. We’ve done it.”

The move has proved popular with current Manor students, who no longer need to transfer out to continue their studies, as well as with high school juniors planning to matriculate for the 2019-2020 academic year, Peri said.

“The community has been overwhelmingly positive,” Peri said. “Part of our discussion that aimed us toward this goal was whether our own students were interested in a bachelor’s program. The answer was overwhemingly yes.”

Indeed, during focus-group discussions on Manor’s future, Peri said, he kept hearing the same message from students again and again: in high school, they worried about which college to choose, but once they arrived at Manor, they felt they belonged.

That sentiment, Peri said, inspired Manor’s new slogan: “You belong here.”

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