The Johns Hopkins University School of Continuing Studies, which has educated adult part-time students for 90 years, will become known this summer as the School of Professional Studies in Business and Education.

The new name has been approved by the university's board of trustees and will become official July 1. It reflects more precisely the division's current mission, said William R. Brody, president of the university.

"The name defines what the school is and does today, offering quality graduate programs in business and education--as well as undergraduate studies--to meet the needs of lifelong learners," Brody said. "More than half of all Johns Hopkins students are now enrolled in part-time programs, which have become increasingly significant to each of our schools and to the entire university."

"The term 'professional studies' reflects our special commitment to individuals who seek to advance their careers in business and education through part-time study," said Stanley C. Gabor, the school's dean. "It is a response to the challenge and demands of a changing environment."

Continuing Studies is the largest in enrollment of the eight Hopkins schools, with more than 4,700 students registered last fall in courses for credit. The school offers classes on the Homewood campus and in off-campus centers in downtown Baltimore and Washington, in Columbia and near Rockville, in Montgomery County.

The school awards more graduate degrees in education than any other in Maryland, 323 last year, and operates the nation's ninth-largest business program for part-time students, with 2,815 students enrolled last fall. Beginning this fall, graduate business students will be able to earn an MBA, which replaces the master of science in business degree.

The school traces its history to 1909, when Johns Hopkins president Ira Remsen established a division for part-time students known as Courses for Teachers. In 1947, it was combined with part-time programs in technology and business economics and named McCoy College, after a Baltimore businessman and supporter of the university. In 1965, it became the Evening College and Summer Session.

Before long, it was clear that classes would not be confined to the "evening," and that, as more graduate programs were added, "college" was increasingly inappropriate. In 1983, the broader School of Continuing Studies name was adopted.

Since the 1980s, part-time programs in engineering and nursing have been transferred to the autonomous schools in those disciplines that were re-established by the university in 1979 and 1984, respectively. The master of liberal arts degree program, created by SCS in 1962, is about to become part of the growing part-time program in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. But business and education, which are not taught elsewhere in the university, will remain part of what will become the School of Professional Studies in Business and Education.

Though the new name becomes official on July 1, it will begin to appear as soon as this month on catalogs, other admissions material, stationery, Web pages and, eventually, signage.