The joint venture between the state’s two flagship universities is coming to an end. Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis will split into two separate academic institutions. The split, while amicable, comes after a 50-year partnership in downtown Indianapolis.
IUPUI is unique among schools as it is technically two academic institutions in one. The school offered undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees from both Indiana University and Purdue University. For example, a student who wanted to be a nurse could get a degree from the IU School of Nursing. A student majoring in Computer Engineering would receive a degree from the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology.
Though the school technically offered programs and degrees from both Indiana and Purdue, the school has always primarily been administered by IU. IU has a noticeably larger presence on campus and the school bears the iconic IU athletic emblem in its logo. This disparity in presence gives a hint at how the split will ultimately play out.
The majority of the campus will become “IU Indianapolis.” IUPUI has around 27,000 students and about 25,000 of them will become IU Indianapolis students. Purdue will keep a small downtown Indianapolis presence, but it will be administered as an extension of the main West Lafayette campus as opposed to a regional campus location.
The NCAA athletic programs will remain intact and administered by IU.
This is not the first time Indiana and Purdue have done this. The two schools had a similar arrangement in Fort Wayne. Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne was a similar, albeit smaller, joint venture between the two schools. The academic operations were permanently split at that location in 2018. That split can give insight as to how the process will ultimately work.