Once again, Towson University cannot move forward with a new doctorate due to its similarity to a degree program at Morgan State University, the Maryland Higher Education Commission has ruled.

Eight of the nine commissioners present Wednesday upheld a previous ruling that the doctorate in sustainability and environmental change proposed by Towson University duplicated Morgan State’s bioenvironmental science Ph.D.

“It is the role and responsibility of the Maryland Higher Education Commission to prevent unreasonable duplication and unnecessary duplication,” wrote Kristin Clarkson, director of communications for the commission, in an email to The Baltimore Sun. “We encourage institutions to develop academic programs that are not duplicative of existing programs. Moreover, the Commission prioritizes collaboration among institutions to best serve students and the needs of the State.”

Morgan State’s program is the only one of its kind in Maryland’s higher education system, according to the school’s website. The degree focuses on various environmental issues affecting biological systems.

The key focus of Towson’s proposed program was climate change and sustainability, and included some science courses, the university told The Sun. Students would also be required to take nonscience courses in areas such as economics, geography and political science, making it a unique program in the state, a university official said.

Officials at Towson said the school will continue to “seek avenues for accelerating engagement with community partners and collaboration with other universities.”

“While TU respects the decision of the commissioners, we are disappointed in and do not concur with today’s denial of our appeal to the Maryland Higher Education Commission that would have led to the approval a unique and critically important interdisciplinary doctoral program in Sustainability and Environmental Change,” a Towson University spokesperson wrote in an email. “The graduates of such a unique program would have helped our state to meet the critical environmental and climate-change related challenges we all face today and increasingly will face in the future.”

Morgan State, in a statement late Thursday, said the university appreciates “the Commission’s commitment to upholding the principles outlined in the 2021 settlement agreement and its recognition of the potential impact that program duplication can have on Maryland’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).”

It’s not the first time TU had a proposal for a graduate program rebuffed because the curriculum was ruled too similar to one offered at Baltimore’s Morgan State, which is a historically Black university about 4 miles away.

In June 2023, university officials objected to Towson University’s request to start a doctoral program in business analytics because they believed it duplicated a program already taught at the Cold Spring Lane campus. TU’s request was originally denied by a commission employee for being duplicative.

The commission’s board overruled that decision in a 4-3 vote that allowed Towson to proceed, but the state’s attorney general’s office then stepped in, saying the vote was invalid. Towson eventually rescinded the proposal.

“Preventing the duplication of academic programs at Maryland’s colleges and universities has a long history rooted in desegregation efforts,” Clarkson said.

In May 2021, a federal judge approved a deal for the state to settle a lawsuit over the treatment of its four historically Black universities — Morgan State, Bowie State University, Coppin State University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore — with $555 million in extra funding over 10 years.

Alumni and supporters of the schools alleged the state systematically undermined the institutions and made it difficult to compete with the state’s other public universities for students and resources.

In January, a legislative work group was assigned to evaluate policies for approving or denying college degree programs offered a list of recommendations for the higher education commission. Several of these recommendations focused on preventing program duplication.

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