Overview:
Students can get full scholarships, allowing them to complete their degrees with no additional cost.
Memphis Theological Seminary (MTS) will conclude its academic operations following the 2025-2026 academic year and will enter into a teach-out partnership with Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology.
The arrangement will allow current students to complete their degrees with continuity, integrity, and care, MTS said in an announcement. The seminary saw enrollment declines of about 10 percent to 15 percent annually, making it difficult to continue operating as a stand-alone institution beyond July 31, 2026.
MTS is affiliated with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (CPC) and in mid-December 2025, the seminary’s board of trustees recommended closure. The denomination concurred in a meeting in late January, 2026.
Under the terms of the teach-out agreement, all current MTS students will be eligible to continue their theological education at Perkins with 100 percent tuition scholarships, allowing them to complete their degrees without additional tuition cost. Perkins offers a comparable ecumenical academic experience. Students who transfer to Perkins will continue in remote and online learning formats.
MTS has also adopted severance plans to staff that will provide transitional salary and health insurance coverage.
When the CPC moved the seminary to Memphis in 1964, it declared that the institution be urban and multiracial, educating men and women and welcoming persons of all Christian denominations. It was a bold move in a time when the Civil Rights Movement was gaining traction and also encountering resistance. It was the first private, voluntarily integrated school in the city and its mission was intentional — to be ecumenical.
MTS has also been purposeful in having a mix in its faculty, including men and women and Black scholars as well as representation from various denominational backgrounds, including Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Nazarene, Roman Catholic, and Jewish traditions.