In the case of the two New Hampshire schools, the dominant partner was New England College. It had over 2,700 students and growing programs in various majors at the time merger plans were announced in May 2018, while enrollment in the Institute of Art was about 300, and had been declining.

The Institute of Art’s urban campus and well-regarded arts programs were attractive to the larger school, but New England College wanted to maintain the institute’s culture as well as its location.

“It’s really important in a merger to be committed to preserving the essence and positive characteristic of the institution that’s being acquired,” said Michele Perkins , president of New England College. “It shouldn’t be a dissolving of that institution but an enhancement.”

It’s an enhancement that many institutes of higher learning have turned to in recent years. Since 2000, more than 100 American colleges and universities have merged, according to data compiled in the strategic mergers book.

And yet, “for years, no one wanted to talked about it, ”said Guilbert C. Hentschke , the Richard T. Cooper and Mary Catherine Cooper Chair in Public School Administration at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education and a co-author of the merger book . In higher education, as opposed to the corporate world, “merging was seen as synonymous with failure or a death wish,” he said.

Given the challenges American colleges and universities are facing — and the growing number of high-profile closures the past few years — that view is changing. “I’d rather have two institutions merge, than see one fail,” said Henry Stoever , president and chief executive of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges .

More college boards and presidents seem to agree with that. “It’s now seen as an acceptable strategy,” said Dr. Hentschke who was also the co-author of a 2017 TIAA Institute report on college mergers.