HIGHER EDUCATION IN HARRISBURG
One of the most unique and compelling facets of Harrisburg’s economic development is the City’s evolution as a center for higher education, a circumstance never before experienced since its founding as a borough in 1791. As a matter of economic strategy, planning and action, the City’s policies and initiatives have very intentionally fostered a synergism and inter-connection between local education, higher education, workforce development and economic development.
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The results to date are both measureable and impressive. The new Harrisburg University of Science and Technology (HU), the first comprehensive university to be chartered in Pennsylvania in more than one hundred years, is in its third year of operation and growing steadily. With its focus on the STEM skills of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, HU’s mission is to prepare the innovators, entrepreneurs and workforce for the businesses and high-skill jobs that are fueling the 21st century economy. Moreover, Harrisburg University’s new 16-story, center-city campus, the Academic Center at Fourth and Market Streets, is proceeding on schedule and within budget for completion by the end of 2008.
The affiliated Science and Technology High School, a part of the Harrisburg School District with a mirror curriculum to the University’s, is now in its sixth year of successful operation. In effect, Harrisburg can now boast an academic offering that affords the student a comprehensive education from the elementary grades through a masters or doctoral degree without ever having to leave the City itself.
Harrisburg’s numerous and complementary initiatives related to education have spawned the arrival of research, various emerging service sectors and new employers. More recently, a technology corridor has surfaced in the City, strongly supported by the recently re-located Technology Council of Central Pennsylvania, located in state-of-the-art offices in the historically renovated downtown Harrisburg Transportation Center.
In related endeavors, the City has grown Harrisburg Area Community College’s new Midtown Center, while Messiah College has constructed and opened its new Harrisburg Institute, designed for urban studies and facilitating students’ urban learning experiences. With uptown Harrisburg’s Dixon University Center, where major renovations and upgrades were dedicated this year, as well as Temple University and Penn State University classes and programs held in the City, there is now a critical mass of higher educational opportunity and offerings to foster and support a new level of job creation, skills training and further economic development in both the City and region.