The Santa Barbara and Ventura Colleges of Law’s agreement with a Chicago-based nonprofit could bring federal student aid, online classes and the option of joint degrees to the campuses.

The Colleges of Law said Sept. 21 that it is teaming up with TCS Education System, an organization that owns three professional schools, including the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute. Officials from both organizations are careful to call the deal an “affiliation agreement,” rather than a merger or acquisition, and say the law school will continue to operate as an independent entity even as it falls under the TCS umbrella.

“It’s a marketing and administrative support agreement,” said Heather Georgakis, dean of the law colleges. “TCS is going to provide us with a great variety of administrative support. As stand-alone law schools we don’t have the resources and aren’t able to provide our students with the same kind of technology and administrative support that TCS will bring us.”

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