ERIC Number: EJ1215745
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018
Pages: N/A
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0024-1822
EISSN: N/A
Higher Education in Peril? Predictions and Reality
Zimmerman, Bethany
Liberal Education, v104 n4 Fall 2018
Clay Christensen predicted half of colleges and universities would go bankrupt or close within a decade. Each year brings more financial trouble: a quarter of all private nonprofit institutions experienced deficits in 2017. More than two-thirds (68 percent) of financial officers at four-year private colleges reported their tuition discount rate was unsustainable. Variables identified as predictors of closures and mergers include unsustainable tuition discounts, frail endowments and lackluster fundraising, enrollments of fewer than one thousand students, missions misaligned with diversifying student demographics, and rural campus environments. Will these variables lead to closures and provoke similar institutions to consider mergers? This article presents a table that briefly summarizes institutional interventions, many implemented to forestall a closure or merger and to help expand financial security.
Descriptors: Higher Education, Educational Trends, Trend Analysis, Universities, School Closing, Organizational Change, Predictor Variables, School Restructuring, Intervention
Association of American Colleges and Universities. 1818 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20009. Tel: 800-297-3775; Tel: 202-387-3760; Fax: 202-265-9532; e-mail: pub_desk@aacu.org; Web site: http://www.aacu.org/publications/index.cfm
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A