Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) is developing a program that would allow students to take specialized or advanced courses offered at other PASSHE universities without transferring or traveling to a different campus, officials announced.
In July 2025, the PASSHE Foundation secured a $536,000 grant to fund the early stages of the project. The money will allow 165 additional faculty members to complete intensive, yearlong training in research-based teaching strategies designed to support course-sharing. More than 500 PASSHE faculty have already finished similar training through the Association of College and University Educators while continuing to teach their regular course loads.
PASSHE Chancellor Christopher Fiorentino framed the initiative as an equity issue as much as an academic one. “Course-sharing will bring students access to more high-quality, specialized courses at other universities, no matter where they are in our system,” he said.
The program is expected to benefit students at rural campuses in particular, where course offerings may be constrained by smaller faculty sizes and tighter budgets. For some students in those communities, advocates say, access to a broader academic catalog could factor into whether they pursue college at all. Developing skilled workers in regions facing workforce shortages is also a stated goal of the initiative.
Diana Rogers-Adkinson, PASSHE vice chancellor and chief academic officer, described the program as a supplement to, not a substitute for, the traditional college experience. “Course-sharing reflects PASSHE’s mission to provide a quality higher education at the lowest possible cost as we meet students where they are geographically and academically,” she said. “This can never replace the on-campus classroom experience, but it gives students an additional option to take specialized or advanced courses offered at other campuses.”
To make cross-campus enrollment logistically viable, PASSHE is building a unified student information platform that consolidates course registration, financial aid, tuition payments, and academic progress tracking across all ten universities. The system has already been deployed at most campuses, with a full rollout expected next year.
Pilot programs are currently underway, developed with guidance from a faculty-led advisory council and university provosts. PASSHE is also collaborating with peer systems nationally through a workgroup under the National Association of System Heads, which awarded the initiative a $10,000 grant in 2024. The State System plans to publish a course-sharing guide that other university systems can use.
Shelley Scherer, president and CEO of the PASSHE Foundation, suggested the initiative could put Pennsylvania on the national map. “PASSHE is well-positioned to be a national leader in designing course sharing strategies, with its universities in rural and suburban communities,” she said.
