Lesley College has added a fifth school, after it announced its alliance yesterday with the Art Institute of Boston.

Located behind the Science Center, between Mass. Ave. and Oxford St., Lesley was founded in Cambridge in 1909 to prepare women for kindergarten teaching.

"Our mission is to train professionals in education, human services... We like to say in the careers that put people first," Lesley College spokesperson Paul Karoff said.

The Art Institute will be added to the four existing schools at Lesley: the School of Undergraduate Studies, the School of Education, the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences, and the School of Management.

The alliance will bolster Lesley's offerings in the arts as well as opening up myriad interdisciplinary opportunities.

Lesley ranks fifteenth in the country in granting master's degrees.

"It is many of the less obvious links between the schools that we find intriguing. Our management program is discussing a program in art management that would draw heavily on their resources," Karoff said.

Lesley officials said the merger, which is still subject to regulatory approval, will help Lesley towards its goal of being upgraded from a college to a university.

Lesley has satellite institutions located throughout New England, the United States and the world, Karoff said.

These schools offer predominantly graduate study and operate on a "cohort system" that offers classes as soon as the demand for them reaches a critical level.

"For example, if there are fifteen people in Cheyenne, Wyoming who are interested in the same course, Lesley professors will fly there to teach it," Karoff said.

"It may meet one weekend every two months and after a span of two years, they will have their degree," he said.

Lesley's greatest efforts are concentrated in Boston and Cambridge and Karoff said the merger will bring Lesley further in its goal of becoming an active presence in the community.

"Lesley professors and graduate students are in classrooms on a daily basis and are involved in administration for Boston schools," he said.