New Study: Business As Usual Could Doom Dozens Of New England Colleges — from forbes.com by Michael B. Horn
The cause of the challenges isn’t one single factor, but a series of pressures from demographic changes, shifts in the public’s perception of higher education’s value, rising operating costs, emerging alternatives to traditional colleges, and, of late, changes in federal policies and programs. The net effect is that many institutions are much closer to the brink of closure than ever before.
What’s daunting is that flat enrollment is almost certainly an overly optimistic scenario.
If enrollment at the 44 schools falls by 15 percent over the next four years and business proceeds as usual, then 28 of the schools will have less than 10 years of cash and unrestricted quasi-endowments before they would become insolvent—assuming no major cuts, additional philanthropy, new debt, or asset sales. Fourteen would have less than five years before insolvency.
Also see:
- A Looming Crisis: New Analysis Shows Dozens of Well-Known Colleges Are Near Financial Trouble — from michaelbhorn.substack.com by Michael B. Horn and Steven M. Shulman
From DSC:
The cultures at many institutions of traditional higher education will make some of the necessary changes and strategies (that Michael and Steven discuss) very hard to make. For example, to merge with another institution or institutions. Such a strategy could be very challenging to implement, even as alternatives continue to emerge.