BANGOR – University College of Bangor students and staff got their wish Wednesday night.

The University of Maine at Augusta will not be merged with the University of Southern Maine according to a draft recommendation from a group created by Gov. John Baldacci to plan for higher education in central Maine.

That means that UCB will remain part of the Augusta campus as it has been for the past 10 years – just what students, faculty and administrators had been lobbying for since the University of Maine System reorganization plan proposed the merger last year.

Education Commissioner Susan Gendron, co-chair of the governor’s panel, announced during a public forum at UCB that the plan instead is to have the University of Maine System board of trustees and the Maine Community College System board of trustees establish a formal partnership that would ensure that the area’s higher education institutions collaborate to offer quality, accessible and affordable academic programs.

The Central Maine Alliance for Higher Education would include UMA, USM, Kennebec Valley Community College and Eastern Maine Community College, according to Gendron who said the University of Maine at Orono also would be involved at times.

Also according to the draft report, the seven University of Maine System campuses would work to expand their baccalaureate and graduate programs – a move that is necessary to support the region’s economy.

A final version of the report is due in December.

Universities and colleges would create efficiencies and save money by “brokering” programs, Gendron said. They would share faculty and courses and use distance education rather than starting from scratch and building brand new programs.

“This is very good news. I’m very pleased with the recommendation,” UCB Dean Gillian Jordan, a member of the governor’s panel, said Wednesday after the public hearing. “As UMA moves toward providing more baccalaurate degrees, we’ll move with them.”

Gendron said that the group decided against the merger after learning through public forums how vehemently people from the Augusta and Bangor campuses opposed the idea because they believed that the identities of their universities would be lost.

The recommended collaboration would work just as well as the merger which focuses on expanding bachelor’s degrees and achieving cost efficiencies.

“We believe this will do the same thing,” she said.

The commissioner said it was “hard to quantify the savings” but they definitely would materialize through collaborations using technology and shared administration and purchases.

She said that USM, UMA and Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield likely would develop their own collaborations, while UCB and Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor would work together, occasionally with the University of Maine.

During a telephone interview Wednesday night, Gov. Baldacci praised the plan and said it “protects the integrity of the Bangor campus and the Augusta campus, and recognizes the collaboration we need to do with distance learning and with beefing up baccalaureate and graduate programs.”

Gendron said that she had discussed the draft recommendations with UMS Chancellor Joseph Westphal and that he thought the opportunity existed for achieving “comparable goals” as those contained in the strategic plan.

She said UMS Trustee James Mullen would be asked to create a committee to analyze and review the recommendations and bring them back to the full board possibly in January or February.

The audience was thrilled with the news and thanked the group for deciding against the merger. UCB Professor Robert Roper said he is “excited to collaborate. I’m interested in getting to know faculty at EMCC and maybe being on that campus, and in strengthening the relationship with the Augusta campus,” he said.