Established in 1963, Penn State Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies is a mission campus designed exclusively to meet graduate education and professional training needs of working adults. Known then as the King of Prussia Graduate Center, the campus was originally housed in a rented King of Prussia school building in response to General Electric Goddard Space Center’s request to provide employees with access to a master’s degree in electrical engineering. In its first term, the school served 80 students—mostly scientists and engineers in Montgomery County—and quickly grew to 457 students in 1967.
In 1987, Penn State University acquired 8.5 acres of land in the Great Valley Corporate Center in Malvern, and the campus relocated to the high-tech Route 202 corridor in 1988. At this time the campus serviced approximately 900 graduate students, and became the first permanent graduate campus to be located in a corporate park. Additional acreage, including a historic home, was purchased in 1993 to expand parking and administrative offices. Known as the Di and Dallas Krapf Alumni House today, the historic residence now houses offices for the Development and Alumni Relations department as well as meetings for the Penn State Great Valley Alumni Society. With a $3 million lead gift from Warren “Pete” Musser in 2000, the campus opened its third building — a conference center — to house extra classroom and office space in addition to a 400 seat auditorium. Since 1991, an Advisory Board comprised of business and industry leaders has influenced the campus’ mission and services. In 1998 the University Board of Trustees approved Penn State Great Valley as a distinct School of Graduate Professional Studies.
Currently Penn State Great Valley offers master’s degrees in business administration, finance, leadership development, data analytics, systems engineering, engineering management, information science, and software engineering in addition to graduate certificates, professional development programs, and conference center services.
Penn State Great Valley, originally called the King of Prussia Graduate Center, was first housed in a rented King of Prussia school building.
In 1987, Penn State University acquired 8.5 acres of land in Malvern's Great Valley Corporate Center and began construction on the campus' Main Building.
The campus opened its third building, a conference center, in 2001.
After opening the Conference Center, the campus added its own Lion Shrine.
In 2013, the campus celebrated its 50th anniversary.