AMHERST, Mass. (AP) – A consortium of five colleges in western Massachusetts has received a $2 million grant to support up to eight additional tenure-track professors.

“This is fabulous news,” said Lorna M. Peterson, executive director of Five Colleges Inc. “It’s at a time when we’re anticipating a large number of retirements from all the institutions, and the curriculum will also be expanding.”

The five college system includes Smith College in Northampton, Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Amherst College, Hampshire College in Amherst and the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. The five campuses already have 16 joint faculty positions.

The grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will fund the positions for the first three years and then the institutions will absorb the funding, Peterson said. The new faculty will be appointed over a five-year period, beginning in the fall of 2006.

It is the largest grant Five Colleges Inc. has received for joint faculty.

For the institutions, the grant means “they don’t have to have every specialty on every campus and they can share curriculum,” Peterson said.

For students, it means more course offerings, she said.