New Jersey hopes to keep college students in-state

But New Jersey's migration problem cannot be solved simply with more desks, said Scott Jaschik, an editor of Inside Higher Ed, an online publication. Attracting students is not a guarantee they will settle here.

"Students follow the jobs," Jaschik said.

"When people say, 'If we do these things, we're sure of where the best-and-brightest will live,' I'd be very skeptical," he said.

Saagar Sethi, 17, a recent Cherry Hill West graduate, was offered a full ride at Rutgers. Instead he chose Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh for its computer-science program. Even with financial aid and help from his parents, he likely will accrue $25,000 in loan debt per year.

"It was worth it to pay more to get a well-known school like Carnegie Mellon," he said.

Raising awareness of Rutgers' value is critical, said Philip Furmanski, the school's executive vice president for academic affairs. One way is to make it a more comprehensive research institution, he said.

In 2003, another state panel proposed that Rutgers merge with the state's other public research institutions - the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). A multibillion-dollar cost and concerns raised by Rutgers about the loss of its identity killed the plan.

The university would like to see a plan to give it control of UMDNJ's Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, Furmanski said.

The change would meld the medical school's resources in clinical studies and public health with Rutgers' engineering and pharmaceuticals programs, creating a center that served core state industries, including drug and medical-device manufacturing, he said.

"We need to help [those industries] find talent and to provide innovation so that they will stay in the state," Furmanski said.

Rutgers president Richard McCormick and NJIT president Robert Altenkirch have had informal discussions about taking over portions of UMDNJ, which has stabilized after a series of corruption scandals and allegations of mismanagement. A UMDNJ spokesman declined to comment about a possible consolidation.

The task force must present Christie with a report by Dec. 1. Kean would not comment on its progress except to say that members had begun their research. As for the proposed merger, he said: "Nothing is off the table."

Contact staff writer Chelsea Conaboy at 856-779-3893 or cconaboy@phillynews.com.