Christian universities are dying. Several years of soaring costs, declining demographics and insufficient cash reserves have steadily driven the market into crisis. Christian institutions account for nearly half of the colleges that have closed or consolidated since the pandemic. Just this month, Johnson University Florida and Pennsylvania’s Clarks Summit University became the latest casualties.

Yet, a 79-year-old private institution in North Carolina appears to be an anomaly. Carolina University’s enrollment has surged 29% this year, rising from 826 to 1,068 students. Its multilingual offerings and global recruitment have attracted scores of international students, who now make up about half of the student body.

The university is also seeing success with its new career-oriented programs, including master’s degrees in data science and innovation, along with undergrad courses covering machine learning, artificial intelligence, esports and cybersecurity.

The school began in 1945 as Piedmont Bible Institute, with North Carolina Baptist leader George Stevens as its founder. In 2012 it became Piedmont International University.

Carolina University outgrew its Winston-Salem campus in 2023, forcing the school to convert offices into makeshift student housing. With space tight and funds limited, officials worried about managing the influx of new students.

Last spring, a chain of unexpected events turned Carolina University’s fortune around within months. First came a substantial gift from the estate of late Kentucky businessman George Rawlings, who died of cancer in March 2023. To Carolina University’s surprise, the final donation (undisclosed) exceeded Rawlings’ initial promise by millions. The school received another $1 million gift in the following months, along with smaller donations.

Soon after that, a church in Alabama agreed to buy Carolina University’s 22-acre Southeastern Bible College campus, the result of a 2017 merger between the two private institutions. Several setbacks had long delayed plans to sell the property: A buyer withdrew due to terminal cancer, a storm damaged the roof, and a few water pipes burst. These costs further strained Carolina University’s ability to manage its two debt services.

Needless to say, the $4.9 million sale of the Alabama campus arrived at a critical moment, making a larger home suddenly attainable. Charles Petitt, president of Carolina University, said the new funding allowed the school to pay off several loans and obligations, reducing its debt “almost down to nothing.”

“This was an amazing couple of days for me,” Petitt recalled. A board member suggested he consider buying the HanesBrands headquarters, located less than 10 miles away. The 117-acre property was newly available as the company planned to move to downtown Winston-Salem. Hours later, the university’s neighbor across the street, Salem Baptist Christian School, expressed interest in buying its current campus.

Earlier this month, Petitt publicly announced the upcoming move to the HanesBrands facilities. The school will soon occupy two multi-story buildings with a combined 500,000 square feet. Public tax records place the property’s value at around $43 million. (The university declined to disclose the sale price as it’s still under contract.)

A shift in strategies

This recent financial turnaround follows years of steady enrollment growth. Carolina University’s long history of mergers played a partial role. Since its founding in 1945, the school has absorbed seven colleges headed by Methodists, Moravians, Baptists, Anglicans and Mennonites. Each merger brought a surge in students, faculty/staff, flagship programs and financial resources, enabling Carolina University to sell campuses for far more than the obligations owed.

“I don’t think we’d be here today without those mergers,” said Petitt, who has led Carolina University for 22 years. “It also gave dignity to those schools, since it’s better to merge than to close with a black eye.”

Though these deals boosted enrollment, Carolina University struggled to keep momentum in the face of changing demographics. Petitt said the university slowly realized there weren’t many 17-year-olds wanting to study ministry domains. Attracting the next generation would require modernizing its course catalog without sacrificing affordability.

Petitt said “jobs of the future” are a key selling point for Carolina University these days. Years ago, the school made the call to only offer new degrees leading to a stable job market and high-paying salaries.

“We have a lot of first-generation and international students with great capacity and academic backgrounds — they have everything but money,” he said. “We feel like we’re in the lifting business, and it will help them to earn a degree that starts at $100,000 a year or more.”

Carolina University closed low-performing programs in music and history and its English master’s degree. Petitt said those decisions were tough but necessary in the transition to career-ready degrees.

The school is already seeing success with this strategy, with data science rising the ranks as its fastest-growing program. Other longstanding programs, such as engineering and business, also maintain strong enrollment.

Carolina University’s legacy theology programs aren’t slowing down either. “We’re training more pastors right now than we have at any other time in our history, even when we were a Bible college,” Petitt said.

To accommodate its growing share of international students, the school has translated its master’s-level ministry degrees into Arabic, Spanish and Portuguese. Hundreds of students hail from Central and South American countries. Petitt said Hispanic enrollment is now approaching 25%, on track to meet the Department of Education’s Hispanic-Serving Institutions designation.

Plans for growth

Since the HanesBrands buildings can accommodate thousands more students, Petitt hopes to expand enrollment to 1,500 over the next academic year. His long-term target is 7,000 main-campus students and 70,000 online.

“Over the next couple of months, we are feverishly working with an architect and contractors on ways to convert the two HanesBrands buildings,” Petitt said. Carolina University expects to have a library and classrooms renovated before January, followed by residence halls by next August. In the meantime, it’s leasing back its existing dorms.

“My goal is to get the HanesBrands property outfitted according to what we need and be debt free, with reserves in the bank,” he added. “If everything goes through as has been contracted, including selling the campus, we could be in that position within a year or so.”

This story originally appeared at MinistryWatch.

Shannon Cuthrell is a journalist with a background covering business, technology and economic development. She has written for Business North Carolina magazine, WRAL TechWire, Charlotte Inno and EE Power, among other publications.