MARS HILL  — Mars Hill College will soon become Mars Hill University.

The school is making the change in August, after 157 years as a college.

Administrators hope the change will attract more students to the school in Madison County, located north of Asheville.

School President Dan Lunsford said Mars Hill’s core values will not change. School spokeswoman Teresa Buckner said the board had been considering the change for about 10 years.

“It is with great excitement that I introduce the Strategic Plan for the next five years of Mars Hill College, a plan that will provide the roadmap for the transformation to Mars Hill University, Lunsford noted.

“Strategic Plan 2012-17 builds on the success achieved in the previous strategic plan and other initiatives, the completion of which strengthened Mars Hill in four distinct areas: significantly increased revenue streams, strengthened academic programming, restructured student development division, and enhanced employee compensation....

‘We recognize that Mars Hill should strive to do more than merely remain viable. It must expand and provide services in a variety of ways that will appeal to potential students and donors,” Lunsford said.

The school began offering a master’s degree in education in 2011. The university hopes to add a master of public administration degree by 2015.