Giving Compass' Take:
- At least 30 colleges closed their doors by the end of 2023, according to an analysis of federal data by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.
- What are the underlying causes of college closures? How can donors start to support higher education systems so they remain sustainable?
- Learn how the pandemic permanently altered college towns.
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Though college enrollment seems to be stabilizing after the pandemic disruptions, predictions for the next 15 years are grim. Colleges will be hurt financially by fewer tuition-paying students, and many will have to merge with other institutions or make significant changes to the way they operate if they want to keep their doors open.
At least 30 colleges closed their only or final campus in the first 10 months of 2023, including 14 nonprofit colleges and 16 for-profit colleges, according to an analysis of federal data by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, or SHEEO. Among nonprofits, this came on the heels of 2022, when 23 of them closed, along with 25 for-profit institutions. Before 2022, the greatest number of nonprofit colleges that closed in a single year was 13.
Over the past two decades, far more for-profit colleges closed each year than nonprofits. An average of nine nonprofit colleges closed each year, compared to an average of 47 for-profit colleges.
Read the full article about colleges closing in 2023 by Olivia Sanchez at The Hechinger Report .