University officials at Indiana University and Purdue say they plan to continue working together despite IU’s plan to offer engineering degrees.
Historically, Purdue University has offered engineering programs while IU has focused on business and the liberal arts.
But the Indiana Commission for Higher Education unanimously approved Thursday an IU proposal to create a program called ‘intelligent systems engineering.’
“We don’t see this as a competitive situation," says IU spokesman Mark Land. "We see this as a complimentary situation and one where we’re actually hopeful for some collaboration between what we do here and some of the programs at Purdue. We think it’s a win for everybody because there’s enough need to go around.”
Purdue Provost Deba Dutta says Purdue's goal is to cooperate and collaborate so the state’s resources are used in the best way possible. IU plans to begin accepting engineering students into the program in the fall of 2016.