Higher Ed has 99 problems, and bankruptcy is one...

The decade-long predicted culling of colleges in the US seems to be well underway. The first ones were the shady online schools, but now the wave has moved on to the small private colleges, many of them with quite good reputations. Rich big powers like Harvard and Yale will never be touched by this because of their wealthy backers and huge endowments, but it's just a matter of time before states start having to make choices about which community colleges and directional schools (U. of Northwest State type places) start feeling the blade.

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About 100 higher education institutions in the United States have closed between 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years, according to a report published Wednesday by the National Center for Education Statistics.

The US Department of Education data shared with Inside Higher Ed show that a total of 73 higher education institutions closed, 17 merged, and 71 lost Title IV eligibility between 2022 and 2024.

At the same time, during the 2023/24 academic year, 62 colleges and universities were added, according to the same report, resulting in a total net loss of 99 institutions, Erudera.com reports.

The list below shows some of the institutions that announced closures recently:

Cabrini University in Pennsylvania
Cazenovia College in New York
Holy Names University in California
Iowa Wesleyan University in Iowa
Philadelphia’s University of the Arts in Pennsylvania
Presentation College in South Dakota
The King’s College in New York
According to the report, fewer colleges and universities have qualified for financial aid programs, down from 5,918 in 2022/23 to 5,819 institutions in the 2023/24 academic year.

Of these institutions, 2,691 are four-year institutions, 1,496 two-year institutions, and 1,632 were classified as less-than-two-year institutions.

The reasons behind college closures include a decline in enrollment and the inability to recover from losses. Over the past year, 15 colleges shut down, of which 10 were affiliated with a religion.

The first college that announced closure in 2023 was Presentation College, a private Roman Catholic college in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Like many other institutions, the college, founded in 1951, struggled with enrollment and didn't see 1,000 students enrolled in the past twenty years.

“After careful evaluation of the sustainability of the college’s academic programs, and a thorough review of alternatives, the Board of Trustees and Presentation Sisters reluctantly decided to close the physical campus and implement teach-out programs as the most responsible way to steward students’ pathways to completing their degrees,” Sister Mary Thomas, president of the Presentation Sisters Corporate Board, said in a statement.

This June, Philadelphia’s University of the Arts also ceased all operations due to a lack of enrollment for several years, leading to decreased income. While announcing the decision, the university said no summer classes would be delivered, but it would continue supporting current students and staff with the transition.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are 3,982 degree-granting higher education institutions in the US as of the 2019/20 academic year.

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