Arizona State U. Will Take Over Thunderbird Business School

Arizona State University has reached a deal to take over the Thunderbird School of Global Management, ending the business school’s quest to shore up its finances by attracting a buyer, The Wall Street Journal reports. Arizona State will pay off roughly $22-million of Thunderbird’s debts, and the business school will keep most of its faculty and staff.

Thunderbird reached a deal last year to be taken over by the for-profit company Laureate Education Inc., but alumni protested and the school’s accreditor nixed the deal in March. Arizona State was one of the institutions in talks to take over Thunderbird before it decided on Laureate.

As part of the deal, Thunderbird will stop offering master’s degrees in business administration and instead focus on its master’s program in global management. The Arizona Board of Regents and the Higher Learning Commission, a regional accreditor, have both approved the deal.