A troubling trend facing colleges is insolvency, forcing many public and private colleges and universities to permanently close their doors to students. Earlier this month, Best Colleges reported that since March 2020, 62 public and nonprofit colleges have closed, announced their closure, or merged with another institution. While the pace is accelerating, the closures are part of a longer trend in higher education.
The State Higher Education Executives Officers Association (SHEEO) released a report in 2023 that found that between 2004 and 2017, “the number of postsecondary institution closures has steadily increased.” Best Colleges points out in its report that before 2020, most schools affected by closures were for-profit institutions, and that now more public and nonprofit institutions are facing financial problems that they cannot solve in the face of declining student enrollment.
However, those numbers began to decline after peaking in 2016, when 1,165 branch closures were recorded. While these were not all classified as institutional closures, branch closures provide an indication of how institutions of higher education are scaling or reducing their size to meet student demand. As population growth has slowed, student enrollment has subsequently declined, and combined with rising costs in a more competitive market, more institutions have closed their doors. While the trend has begun to reverse, SHEEO experts expect that “the financial and enrollment challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and broader demographic changes could lead to enrollment declines, financial challenges, and a continued steady increase in institutional consolidations or closures in the years to come.”
How many major corporate closures, mergers or splits have there been so far this year?
This year alone, 22 colleges have announced mergers or closures, and Best Colleges already has four mergers or closures in sight that will take place in 2025. The number of 23 recorded so far this year is higher than all the closures listed on the college-focused web portal’s list for 2023.
- Salus University, Pennsylvania – merger with Drexel University
- Lincoln Christian University, Illinois – merger with Ozark Christian College
- Pittsburgh Technical College, Pennsylvania – Closing
- Goddard College, Vermont – Closure
- Woodbury University, California – merger with the University of Redlands
- University of the Arts, Pennsylvania – closure
- Union Institute & University, Ohio – Closure
- Johnson University Florida, Florida – Closing
- Delaware College of Art and Design, Delaware – Closing
- Cabrini University, Pennsylvania – Closure
- Wells College, New York – Closure
- The College of Saint Rose, New York – Closing
- Notre Dame College, Ohio – Closure
- Magdalen College, New Hampshire – Closure
- Birmingham-Southern College, Alabama – Closure
- University of Saint Katherine, California – Closure
- Oak Point University, Illinois – Closing
- Hodges University, Florida – Closing
- Mountain State College, West Virginia – Closing
- St. John’s University, Staten Island, New York – merger with Lewis University
- Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indiana – Division into different institutions
- Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences, Pennsylvania – Merger with Saint Joseph’s University
Source: Best Colleges
The largest institution on the list, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, had 27,000 students and will not close but will split into two institutions. This was also the only public university on the list, all the others were private; however, none of the other institutions on the list had a student population of 2,800, and many had enrollments of less than 500.
With 52 weeks in a year, the total number of planned closures or mergers amounts to almost one per week, or just over three per month.
Best Colleges points out in its report that before 2020, most schools affected by closures were for-profit institutions, and that now an increasing number of public and nonprofit institutions are suffering financial problems that they cannot handle in the face of declining student enrollment.
