(from Forbes):
By Tom Lindsay
Over the course of the past several weeks, Americans have watched as a number of university senior administrators across the country have lost their jobs as the result of student protests. While this may incline other, still-employed campus leaders to pause to worry over whether they will have jobs in the near future, three new studies are telling them that they have larger concerns than their own survival—the survival of their institutions themselves.
The first study, a Moody’s Investors Service Report, forecasts that the declining ability of small colleges to increase revenue could lead to a tripling of the number of colleges that close in the years ahead as well as a doubling of mergers of institutions. The growth in closures and mergers is predicted to remain under 1% of the 2,300 four-year, private nonprofit and public colleges in the country. Although the report qualifies its conclusions to stress that the projected closures and mergers are relatively “small,” it adds that this number is “notable.” The chronic failure of a growing number of small institutions to raise revenue reliably could force as many as 15 schools a year to close over the next two years. Currently, the average number of colleges that close annually stands at roughly five. CONTINUE READING HERE