St. John’s University and The College of Insurance, in a statement issued on Wednesday, announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement, making TCI a school of St. John’s Peter J. Tobin College of Business. The combination creates a more powerful business education program for students of both institutions, and gives St. John’s a Manhattan campus for the first time in its more than 130-year history, according to the statement issued.

Under this agreement, The College of Insurance will be renamed The School of Risk Management, Insurance and Actuarial Science and exist as a unit of the College of Business. The student body of The College of Insurance will become part of the St. John’s University student body, while the board of trustees will continue as an advisory board. The College of Insurance 10-story building in Manhattan’s Financial District will become St. John’s University’s fifth campus worldwide. The agreement, already approved by the Boards of Trustees of both institutions, is still subject to regulatory approval.

“As we welcome The College of Insurance, its students and alumni into the St. John’s University community, we enrich the academic possibilities for all our constituencies,” said Rev. Donald Harrington, CM, president of St. John’s University, in the statement.

Peter J. Tobin, dean of the St. John’s College of Business said, “We have long expressed an interest in offering our business programs in Manhattan. This agreement not only makes this possible, but enables us to expand our business curriculum into the critical area of risk management and to build executive and professional education for the future.”

The College of Insurance, founded in 1901, is a private and independent college that serves more than 2,000 students and offers graduate and undergruate degree programs for careers in insurance and financial services.

With the addition of the new campus, enrollment at St. John’s University reaches nearly 21,000 on it’s campuses in Queens, Staten Island, Long Island and Rome.