As Philadelphia College of Textiles & Science the institution offered its first graduate degree, the Master of Business Administration, in 1976. With the purchase of properties in 1980 and 1988, the size of the campus nearly doubled again and grew to include additional classrooms, research laboratories, student residences and athletic facilities. In 1992, the 54,000-square-foot Paul J. Gutman Library was built.
The College continued throughout the ’90s to provide its students with the highest-quality education and real-world experience demanded by their chosen professions, adding majors in a wide range of fields. To better reflect the institution’s breadth and depth, the College applied for and was granted university status by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1999. And, in a historic move, the Board of Trustees voted to change the School’s name to Philadelphia University on July 13, 1999.
