Northeastern plans to acquire the New College of the Humanities, or NCH, a small, London-based liberal arts college, according to an email from the Office of the President to the Northeastern community Tuesday. The deal marks the university’s latest push to strengthen its global presence.

During a Faculty Senate meeting Wednesday, Northeastern Provost James C. Bean and Senior Vice President Philomena Mantella discussed many possibilities for how Northeastern could leverage a London outpost, but said that future plans for the partnership hinge on NCH’s British accreditation, which will be completed in a year and a half.

Until then, Bean said that the 200-student private institution, which focuses on the humanities, social science and law, will be treated as “a separate college with its own governance structure, faculty, its own students.”

The provost said while numerous opportunities exist for collaboration and partnership, Northeastern must handle the merger delicately.

“The real challenge of the planning committee … was ‘what are the first few things we want to concentrate on?’ … because there are hundreds of things we could be talking about,” Bean said. “The biggest regulation to speed in doing this stuff is not destroying them in the process because they’re so small compared to us.”

Mantella, who oversees Northeastern’s regional campuses, believes the U.K. could be a lucrative market for the university’s signature lifelong and experiential learning programs.

“There is an opportunity in the U.K. right now that the universities haven’t fully embraced, and that is for apprenticeships and lifelong learning,” she said. “They’re really looking for innovators in that space.”

Mantella also noted that the British government uses corporate taxes to subsidize apprenticeships for U.K. residents, but £1.3 billion of this money has gone unused, presenting potential funding for co-ops or related experiential education.

Uta Poiger, dean of the College of Social Science and Humanities, said that while NCH’s current curriculum caters toward liberal arts majors, future programs offered to Northeastern students could include more interdisciplinary courses. Poiger referenced a study abroad program at NCH for Northeastern students this spring centered on data, ethics and culture that could serve as a pilot for future offerings.

“We very consciously have built something that draws on their values and our values, and frankly also models humanics for our students,” Poiger said.  “We have found them [to be] very good partners in that effort.”

Poiger, who served on the merger’s planning committee, praised NCH’s “strong ethos of publicly-engaged scholarship and education,” and said she has already worked with her British counterparts to find areas for research collaboration.

Northeastern expanded into Canada with a campus in Toronto and a Vancouver location in development, but NCH will be the first campus outside of North America. While The Wall Street Journal reported the university also plans to expand to Asia, Mantella could not confirm any ongoing efforts, but left the possibility open.

“We’re building a global university system,” she said. “We’re not actively pursuing a campus location in Asia at the moment, but we’re very interested in our global footprint and where we should be next. We’re always looking at partnerships in Asia, Africa and South America where we’re not present yet.”

For now, Bean believes London will provide ample opportunities for students to immerse themselves in new experiences.

“Higher education in the U.K. is different and the whole culture is different,” he said. “But it’s comfortable because we can almost understand the language.”