The University of Maryland’s College Park and Baltimore campuses will not merge, University System of Maryland Regents announced Dec. 9. Instead, the main campus at College Park and the medical school in Baltimore will collaborate more closely without becoming a single entity.

Maryland Senate president Thomas Miller asked in March for an investigation into whether a merger would be beneficial. After weighing pros and cons, USM rejected the merger idea, deciding instead to implement a University of Maryland Strategic Alliance.

The Alliance will include provisions for joint faculty appointments and research opportunities between the two campuses. A team consisting of USM chancellor William Kirwin and the presidents of UMCP and UMB will present a plan for the Alliance in March.

An increase in cooperation will improve the University of Maryland’s already impressive reputation as a research institution, USM vice chancellor Patrick Hogan said. Taken together, UMCP and UMB would rank among the top 10 universities in America in terms of research funding.

For aspiring medical students, the current plan could mean reduced tuition cost and a faster path to a doctorate, Hogan said. Instead of earning an undergraduate degree at College Park before applying to a three- to four-year graduate program at Baltimore, prospective students would apply to both campuses at the same and earn their degrees in fewer years.

The major differences between the two campuses led USM regents to reject the merger, Hogan said.

“It is very disruptive and time-intensive to merge the different personalities, different systems, different cultures of the two institutions,” Hogan said. “The Strategic Alliance won’t have the distraction of trying to build everything into one.”