Vanderbilt moving South with new Florida campus
The plans include creating an innovation hub on the campus that would connect local entrepreneurs with academic programming and research and create opportunities for collaboration with Vanderbilt faculty and students.
After a unanimous vote by the Palm Beach County Commission in October and earlier action by the City of West Palm Beach, Vanderbilt University can move forward with plans to develop a new campus in West Palm Beach, FL.
For several months, Vanderbilt officials have been in discussions with city and county officials and community and business leaders about establishing a presence in West Palm Beach to complement the region’s booming financial and tech sectors. The affirmative vote by the county to provide five acres of county-owned land to Vanderbilt, along with two acres already pledged by the City of West Palm Beach, paves the way for the university to establish a new campus in South Florida focused on graduate programs in business, computing, and engineering, bringing high-impact graduate education to what has become known as “Wall Street South.”
“With the visionary votes by the city and county commissioners, the way has been cleared for Vanderbilt to begin writing an important new chapter in its history,” Chancellor Daniel Diermeier said. “A campus in the financial nerve center of West Palm Beach will provide rich new opportunities for our students and faculty. At the same time, it will allow us to bring our economic impact, innovative capacity and spirit of radical collaboration to South Florida. We thank the commissioners for their vote of confidence and look forward to working across sectors to make Vanderbilt a vital and generative presence in Palm Beach County.”
The effort is part of Vanderbilt’s ongoing strategy to “bring the world to Vanderbilt and Vanderbilt to the world.”
Once operational, the West Palm Beach campus will welcome nearly 1,000 students in various business programs — such as an executive MBA and master’s in finance — and in engineering and computing-focused fields such as artificial intelligence, data science, and computer science. Vanderbilt is engaged with the Florida Commission for Independent Education to map out the specific academic programming that would be offered in this location and will also seek appropriate approvals from other relevant accreditors and regulatory bodies.
Vanderbilt also plans to create an innovation hub on the campus that would connect local entrepreneurs with academic programming and research and create opportunities for collaboration with Vanderbilt faculty and students. This innovation hub would offer programs and opportunities for people in Palm Beach County and let the Vanderbilt community tap into South Florida’s burgeoning innovation ecosystem.
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