Last week, Green Mountain College, a small private college in Vermont, announced that it will close at the end of the spring semester.
Earlier this month, Hampshire College announced that the school is seeking a partner to help it survive.
And as Scott Jaschik notes in Inside Higher Ed,
Another Massachusetts institution, Newbury College, announced in December that it would close at the end of this academic year. And Mount Ida College, located outside Boston, announced in April that it would close. Also last year, Atlantic Union College, also outside Boston, announced that it would close.
In the Fall 2018 issue of Education Next, Stephen Eide wrote about the challenges facing many small private colleges.
Enrollment is dwindling. Deficits are mounting. And more closures are looming: that’s the prediction of many higher-education experts, who are concerned about the future of small private colleges in America.
Elite schools are not in trouble; they can count on deep applicant pools and practically limitless resources from their endowments and alumni networks. Public college systems, though not without their own fiscal challenges, are ultimately backed by the government’s power to tax. But small mid-tier private schools tend to have modest endowments, and after decades of tuition hikes comparable to those of their elite peers, are now dangerously at risk of pricing themselves out of the market.
Please read “Private Colleges in Peril,” by Stephen Eide in the Fall 2018 issue of EdNext.
— Education Next
