Rice University - Baylor College of Medicine Merger Update

Rice University and the Baylor College of Medicinewill not merge in the near future. Inside Higher Ed and the Chronicle of Higher Education report that merger talks ended between the two institutions. While there were voices on both sides of the proposed merger, it appears that financial concerns related to BCM scuttled the merger. Rice attempted to put the financial picture to the side with conditions outlined in deliberations, but it appears that the financial concerns continued to take center stage. 

While the proposed merger may have been mission-complementary - a combination that programmatically made sense - the merger would not have been a true mutual growth merger. In mutual growth mergers, both institutions come together out of positions of strength. To an extent, this merger would inevitably have been considered a bailout of BCM by Rice. Nobody wants to take on a sinking ship. Perhaps if BCM can get their financial house in order, this merger can be revisited in the future.