Colleges that have closed since 2016
Education Dive recently did a thorough evaluation of the Colleges that have closed since 2016. Click here to see the full list of nonprofit college closures since 2016.
The last few years have been tumultuous ones for colleges and universities in the U.S. Increased regulation and reduced enrollment continue to be among several factors contributing to the closure or consolidation of thousands of colleges and campuses around the country.
That consolidation also impacted the priorities of ones that remained open. Institutions are adding degrees and certificates in emerging tech fields such as artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, and dropping low-enrollment programs including some in the liberal arts. They’re also looking online, where they can reach more students with targeted subject matter.
That activity is ongoing and more is forecasted in the years ahead.
Small liberal arts colleges fight to stay open
Undergraduate enrollment is on the decline, reducing the tuition revenue many small colleges rely on for lack of a sizable endowment. Experts say the drop-off is due in part to a strong economy and projections of a cyclical decline among the college-age demographic. To help attract more students, colleges are offering them a bigger break on tuition.
A 2016 report from Ernst & Young affiliate the Parthenon Group found 800 colleges vulnerable to “critical strategic challenges” due to their small size, compared to a much smaller share of colleges with enrollments over 1,000. The report lists several risk factors for small colleges amid the current environment of consolidation in higher ed. Those include: enrolling fewer than 1,000 students; the absence of online programs; tuition increases greater than 8% and discounts higher than 35%; and depending on tuition for more than 85% of revenue.
In a review of more than 75 New England colleges enrolling more than 100 students and that had annual expenses of less than $100 million in 2012 and 2016, The Boston Globe found tuition accounted for 70% or more of revenue at 63 institutions. Harvard University, by comparison, got 21% of its revenue from tuition in 2017. Small liberal arts colleges have played an important role in the region’s economy and history, The Globe notes, which is partly why their closures tend to make headlines.
Tight budgets and small endowments factored into announcements by several New England colleges in recent months that they, too, would close. The 2018 closure of Mount Ida College, located near Boston, made headlines yet again this spring when a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by students alleging officials knew the college was in financial trouble and didn’t inform students of the situation until it abruptly shuttered in May following a failed merger attempt. The judge said the claims didn’t stand up to state law and that paying tuition in exchange for education “does not create a contract” between the institutions and students.
The spate of closures in the region prompted the state higher education board and an accreditor to increase oversight of their financial performance.
Not all colleges faced with the likelihood of closing end up doing so, however. Iowa Wesleyan University raised enough money from alumni and the community to stay open for the spring 2019 semester after officials said it might close due to financial difficulties amid enrollment declines.
Major private liberal arts college closures and consolidation, 2016-present
| Institution | State | Year | Deal | Dive Insight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Jewish University | CA | 2018 | Closed (Temporarily) | |
| Burlington College | VT | 2016 | Closed | |
| College of New Rochelle | NY | 2019 (expected) | Closed | |
| College of St. Joseph | VT | 2019 | Closed | |
| Concordia College Alabama | AL | 2018 | Closed | |
| Crossroads College | MN | 2016 | Closed | |
| Dowling College | NY | 2016 | Closed | |
| Grace University | NE | 2018 | Closed | |
| Green Mountain College | VT | 2019 | Closed | Dive Insight |
| Hiwassee College | TN | 2019 | Closed | |
| John Wesley University | NC | 2018 | Merged (Piedmont International University) | |
| Marygrove College | MI | 2019 | Closed | |
| Marylhurst University | OR | 2018 | Closed | |
| Morthland College | IL | 2018 | Closed | |
| Mount Ida College | MA | 2018 | Closed | Dive Insight |
| Newbury College | MA | 2019 | Closed | Dive Insight |
| Saint Joseph’s College | IN | 2017 | Closed | |
| Shimer College | IL | 2017 | Merged (North Central College) | |
| Southern Vermont College | VY | 2019 | Closed | |
| St. Catharine College | KY | 2016 | Closed | |
| St. Gregory’s University | OK | 2017 | Closed | Dive Insight |
| Trinity Lutheran College | WA | 2016 | Closed |
Institutions included on this list had one or more location close during the period. We did not consider satellite campuses.
Sources: Click here
Public systems consolidate
Just as small colleges are undergoing major consolidation, so too are some larger university systems. Among the most high profile is the set of mergers underway within the University of Wisconsin System, which will consolidate 13 two-year colleges into seven four-year colleges. It’s the system’s biggest change since it formed in 1971, according to the Wisconsin State-Journal.
The University of Georgia System has been consolidating campuses for several years in a move to reduce operating costs and improve student outcomes. A trio of community colleges in Alabama, too, is consolidating into a single institution with a new name: Coastal Alabama Community College. Connecticut’s community colleges are also eyeing an administrative consolidation.
Slightly fewer than half of college mergers between 2010 and 2017 — roughly 40 across nine or more states — involved at least one public college, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Stateline publication. Colleges face several challenges to successful mergers, however, including the potential for cultural mismatches, higher tuition from reduced local competition and challenges reconciling salaries of two-year college employees with the often-higher rates commanded by those at four-year institutions, Stateline reported.
Consolidation of individual colleges or entire systems is most successful when it’s part of a strategic plan and not a last-ditch effort to save an institution, according to a 2017 report from the research arm of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America. The report notes potential short-term costs include updating campus buildings, marketing the change and lost efficiencies despite the move to scale, and that gains pay out over the long term.
Major public college closures and consolidation, 2016-present
| Institution | State | Year | Deal | Dive Insight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama Southern Community College | AL | 2016 | Merged (Faulkner State and Jefferson Davis community colleges) | |
| Armstrong State University | GA | 2017 | Merged (Georgia Southern University) | |
| Asnuntuck Community College | CT | 2023 (expected) | Consolidating Administration | Dive Insight |
| Bainbridge State College | GA | 2017 | Merged (Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College) | |
| Capital Community College | CT | 2023 (expected) | Consolidating administration | Dive Insight |
| Faulkner State Community College | AL | 2017 | Merged (Alabama Southern and Jefferson Davis community colleges) | |
| Gateway Community College | CT | 2023 (expected) | Consolidating administration | Dive Insight |
| Georgia Perimeter College | GA | 2016 | Merged (Georgia State University) | |
| Housatonic Community College | CT | 2023 (expected) | Consolidating administration | |
| Jefferson Davis Community College | AL | 2016 | Merged (Faulkner State and Alabama Southern community colleges) | |
| Johnson State College | VT | 2018 | Merged (Lyndon State College) | |
| Lyndon State College | VT | 2018 | Merged (Johnson State College) | |
| Manchester Community College | CT | 2023 (expected) | Consolidating administration | Dive Insight |
| Middlesex Community College | CT | 2023 (expected) | Consolidating administration | Dive Insight |
| Naugatuck Valley Community College | CT | 2023 (expected) | Consolidating administration | Dive Insight |
| Northwestern Connecticut Community College | CT | 2023 (expected) | Consolidating administration | Dive Insight |
| Norwalk Community College | CT | 2023 (expected) | Consolidating administration | Dive Insight |
| Quinebaug Valley Community College | CT | 2023 (expected) | Consolidating administration | Dive Insight |
| Three Rivers Community College | CT | 2023 (expected) | Consolidating administration | Dive Insight |
| Tunxis Community College | CT | 2023 (expected) | Consolidating administration | Dive Insight |
| University of Wisconsin-Baraboo/Sauk County | WI | 2020 (expected) | Consolidated (University of Wisconsin-Platteville) | |
| University of Wisconsin-Barron County | WI | 2020 (expected) | Consolidated (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire) | |
| University of Wisconsin-Fond du Lac | WI | 2020 (expected) | Consolidated (University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh) | |
| University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley | WI | 2020 (expected) | Consolidated (University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh) | |
| University of Wisconsin-Marathon County | WI | 2020 (expected) | Consolidated (University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point) | |
| University of Wisconsin-Marshfield | WI | 2020 (expected) | Consolidated (University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point) | |
| University of Wisconsin-Richland | WI | 2020 (expected) | Consolidated (University of Wisconsin-Platteville) | |
| University of Wisconsin-Rock County | WI | 2020 (expected) | Consolidated (University of Wisconsin-Whitewater) | |
| University of Wisconsin-Washington County | WI | 2020 (expected) | Consolidated (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) | |
| University of Wisconsin-Waukesha | WI | 2020 (expected) | Consolidated (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) | |
| Wichita Area Technical College | WI | 2018 | Merged (Wichita State University) |
Institutions included on this list had one or more location close during the period. We did not consider satellite campuses.
Sources: Click here
For-profits look for a way forward
The for-profit sector has been in a downward spiral since 2016, when the Obama administration increased its oversight and stripped federal recognition of the accreditor responsible for two large chains — ITT and Corinthian Colleges — whose collapses drew attention to issues of misrepresentation and poor student outcomes within the sector. That accreditor, ACICS, oversaw about 250 colleges in 2016, a figure that has since shrunk by roughly two-thirds with 61 closing and more than 100 finding new accreditors, according to a July 2018 report by the Center for American Progress.
More than 100 for-profit and career colleges closed between the 2016-17 and 2017-18 academic years alone, while 20 nonprofit colleges shuttered during that period, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. And although the number of credentials issued increased 1.2% from 2012-13 to 2016-17, for-profits offered nearly 30% fewer than nonprofits.
The closures that have characterized the sector reared up again in late 2018 and early 2019 with the shuttering of for-profit colleges owned by three college operators: Education Corporation of America, Vatterott Educational Centers and the Dream Center. Combined, tens of thousands of students were affected. The closures’ quick succession drew renewed attention to concerns over how the department and accreditors monitor struggling colleges, and what safeguards protect students when they shut their doors.
Efforts by the U.S. Department of Education under Betsy DeVos to roll back or weaken some of the regulations governing the sector are underway, most recently with its move to permanently reinstate federal recognition of ACICS after DeVos temporarily restored it last year. That could breathe new life into several ACICS institutions that were unable to find new accreditors. DeVos’s Ed Department has also pledged to overhaul two key Obama-era regulations concerning for-profit colleges — borrower defense to repayment and gainful employment — though it missed a key deadline for doing so. It is now in the process of writing new rules for accreditation.
For-profit colleges have been taking advantage of lax oversight from the Ed Department to shed the sector’s tainted reputation and targeted regulation.
The biggest move yet involved the for-profit Kaplan University, whose acquisition by Purdue University was finalized in 2018 to form the framework of the nonprofit’s online education platform. And Grand Canyon University last year won approval to change status from a for-profit to a nonprofit institution, though it will operate under a for-profit parent that handles support services such as technology, marketing and financial aid. Critics say such moves allow for-profits to operate as nonprofits.
Other for-profit college operators are changing tack, dropping their colleges and picking up companies that can round out an educational services portfolio. Among them are Zovio, formerly Bridgepoint Education and parent of Ashford University, as well as Adtalem Global Education, which sold off DeVry University last year as it doubles down on professional education.
Several House Democrats, who won a majority in the 2018 midterm elections, have pledged to step up oversight of the Ed Department’s de-regulatory efforts. Industry observers expect more movement among for-profits through 2020, including nonprofit conversions and acquisitions.
