Small U.s. Colleges Battle Death Spiral As Enrollment Drops

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-14/small-u-s-colleges-battle-death-spiral-as-enrollment-drops.html

At a Dowling College campus on Long Island’s south shore, a fleet of unused shuttle buses sits in an otherwise empty parking lot. A dormitory is shuttered, as are a cafeteria, bookstore and some classrooms in the main academic building.

“There’s a lot of fear here,” said Steven Fournier, a senior who lived in the now-closed dorm for his first three years. “It’s not the same college I arrived at.”

Dowling, which got a failing grade for its financial resources from accreditors last month, epitomizes the growing plight of many small private colleges that depend almost entirely on tuition for revenue. It’s been five years since the recession ended and yet their finances are worsening. Soaring student debt, competition from online programs and poor job prospects for graduates are shrinking their applicant pools.

“What we’re concerned about is the death spiral -- this continuing downward momentum for some institutions,” said Susan Fitzgerald, an analyst at Moody’s Investors Service in New York. “We will see more closures than in the past.”

Moody’s, which rates more than 500 public and private nonprofit colleges and universities, downgraded an average of 28 institutions annually in the five years through 2013, more than double the average of 12 in the prior five-year period.

Enrollments Fall

Dozens of schools have seen drops of more than 10 percent in enrollment, according to Moody’s. As faculty and staff have been cut and programs closed, some students have faced a choice between transferring or finishing degrees that may have diminished value.

..

Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen has predicted that as many as half of the more than 4,000 universities and colleges in the U.S. may fail in the next 15 years. The growing acceptance of online learning means higher education is ripe for technological upheaval, he has said.

The purge of UK HE is still it appears something for the future. No failures yet of any UK institution although there have been rumblings about a number on the brink.

[Sancho Panza]

http://www.bloomberg...ment-drops.html

The purge of UK HE is still it appears something for the future. No failures yet of any UK institution although there have been rumblings about a number on the brink.

There were 7/8 on the brink a year or two back.From memory,one was hauled up for 'visa' infringements,but I may be wrong

[Wurzel Of Highbridge]

No need for UK institutions to shut their doors, most of them can scale back by selling the massive amounts of property they have acquired over the last 15 years.

[The Masked Tulip]

I blame Glee.

[Executive Sadman]

Dont they admit chinese students or something?