UMass President Marty Meehan is sounding alarms that an “existential threat” could soon cripple higher education.
After the United States saw its college student population explode during the second half of the 20th century, overall enrollment has begun to decline in recent years — across the country and in school-saturated New England. In 2016, more than two thirds of private colleges and a majority of public colleges failed to meet their enrollment goals. Declining enrollment means declining tuition revenue — which in turn is increasing the financial pressure on colleges, particularly small schools.
And it’s about to get worse.
While the recent dip in enrollment — and subsequent row of college closures — has been attributed to a number of factors, experts say the enrollment trends are set to fall off a cliff. The reason is that the 2008 recession resulted in a historic downturn in the U.S. birth rate — effectively lighting the fuse of an 18-year time bomb for American colleges. Studies estimate that nearly 2.3 million fewer babies were born in the United States between 2008 and 2013, and the birth rate has continued to drop since then.
Some experts predict that anywhere from 25 percent to even 50 percent of private colleges will close over the next decade. “Make no mistake — this is an existential threat to entire sectors of higher education, and New England is, unfortunately, ground zero,” the former Massachusetts congressman said in his State of the University speech Monday night.
UMass president calls for online college to address 'existential threat' | Boston.com
After the United States saw its college student population explode during the second half of the 20th century, overall enrollment has begun to decline in recent years — across the country and in school-saturated New England. In 2016, more than two thirds of private colleges and a majority of public colleges failed to meet their enrollment goals. Declining enrollment means declining tuition revenue — which in turn is increasing the financial pressure on colleges, particularly small schools.
And it’s about to get worse.
While the recent dip in enrollment — and subsequent row of college closures — has been attributed to a number of factors, experts say the enrollment trends are set to fall off a cliff. The reason is that the 2008 recession resulted in a historic downturn in the U.S. birth rate — effectively lighting the fuse of an 18-year time bomb for American colleges. Studies estimate that nearly 2.3 million fewer babies were born in the United States between 2008 and 2013, and the birth rate has continued to drop since then.
Some experts predict that anywhere from 25 percent to even 50 percent of private colleges will close over the next decade. “Make no mistake — this is an existential threat to entire sectors of higher education, and New England is, unfortunately, ground zero,” the former Massachusetts congressman said in his State of the University speech Monday night.
UMass president calls for online college to address 'existential threat' | Boston.com
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