More US colleges close as enrolment pressures take hold

As 2024 draws to a close, it also marks the end of an era for some institutions.

Altogether, at least 16 non-profit colleges and universities announced closures this year. Most were small, private, tuition-dependent institutions that lacked robust endowments. Many approached the closure process in an orderly fashion, winding down operations and teaching out academic programmes, but some shuttered abruptly, leaving students in the lurch.

The number is slightly higher than last year, when 14 non-profit institutions announced closure; a 15th, the King’s College, ended operations in 2023 but did not announce it was shutting down. Experts expect college closures to increase significantly in the next five years amid enrolment pressures, according to research by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

This year, seven of those headed for closure were religiously affiliated and four were located in Pennsylvania — the most of any state. (Branch campuses without standalone identification numbers, which are used by the US Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education, are not included in this year’s report.)

Officials most frequently cited financial pressures and declining enrolment as the reasons for closure; rising operating costs were also a recurring theme. Some institutions attributed their enrolment struggles to specific factors, such as the troubled rollout of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). One blamed social issues in downtown Portland, Oregon, citing homelessness, crime and open drug use as contributing causes.

Inside Higher Ed has been tracking institutional closures and mergers all year. Here’s our recap, in chronological order, of the non-profit institutions that announced closures this year. Given teach-out processes, some will remain open into 2025 as they wind down operations.

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

The Philadelphia art school announced in January that it would end its degree programmes, making it the first institution in 2024 to announce its demise due to financial pressures. While the academy will officially close at the end of the 2024–25 academic year, its museum will remain open.

Officials attributed the decision to end academic offerings to declining enrolment and rising costs, noting they had unsuccessfully sought partnerships to keep degree programmes alive.

While in past years PAFA enrolled about 200 students, in 2022 the head count fell to just over 100, according to the latest federal data. Officials said ending academic programmes would save $1 million (£780,000) annually — a necessity given the institution’s $3 million deficit.

Notre Dame College

After unsuccessfully pursuing a strategic partnership with Cleveland State University, the small Roman Catholic college in Ohio closed at the end of the spring semester.

Officials pointed to declining enrolment, demographic challenges, rising operating costs and steep debt when they announced Notre Dame’s closure in February.

Enrolment had fallen by more than half, from 2,281 a decade ago, according to the Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, to about 1,050 in recent years, local media reported.

Fontbonne University

The Roman Catholic institution in Missouri was among the first to announce plans to close early this year, just after celebrating its centennial in 2023. Officials cited deteriorating finances and shrinking enrolment.

Like Notre Dame, Fontbonne’s enrolment fell by more than half over a decade, from nearly 2,000 students in 2013 to 874 last fall, according to officials.

Eastern Gateway Community College

Beset by legal and fiscal issues, the Ohio community college announced in March it would close, mere months after it shuttered a lucrative but controversial online programme.

At one point before its online programme was terminated, EGCC enrolled 40,000 students.

A number of factors contributed to EGCC’s demise, including a lengthy battle with the Department of Education over a “free college” programme for labour union members. The programme boosted enrolment but attracted scrutiny from the accreditor and state lawmakers for enrolling a high number of out-of-state students, as well as for alleged mismanagement of financial aid funds. Law enforcement also investigated the college for alleged financial irregularities.

Excluding branch campuses, EGCC is the only freestanding public institution in the US to announce a closure this year.

Birmingham-Southern College

After a failed legislative attempt to save the private Christian institution in Alabama, officials announced in March that Birmingham-Southern would close just two months later.

The closure was brought on by a mix of declining enrolment and rising costs, as well as mistakes former officials made more than a decade ago. In 2010, the college discovered that it had improperly calculated financial aid awards by millions of dollars. Around the same time, administrators tapped BSC’s endowment for building projects, depleting reserves.

Birmingham-Southern announced in late 2022 that without state intervention, it would be forced to close, prompting lawmakers to pass legislation to create a public loan programme for struggling private colleges. However, state treasurer Young Boozer III denied BSC’s loan application — even though it was tailor-made for the college and drafted by alumni in the legislature. Mr Boozer argued that BSC did not have adequate collateral for the loan and was a “terrible credit risk”.

The legislature later nullified the loan programme. Without the anticipated state lifeline, BSC closed abruptly. The BSC campus remains on the market after a deal to sell the site to Miles College for an undisclosed sum fell through.

Oak Point University

Facing a steep drop in enrolment and a financial deficit, the small private institution in Illinois announced in March that it would close at the end of the spring semester.

Enrolment at the health services–oriented university plummeted following the coronavirus pandemic, from 860 students in autumn 2019 to 429 in autumn 2022, IPEDS data shows.

Goddard College

The spate of spring closures continued into April, when the small private college in Vermont announced it would shut down at the end of May.

Goddard had struggled financially for years as its enrolment dwindled. At the time of the closure announcement, college officials put enrolment at 220 students — down from more than 1,900 in the 1970s. But even as recently as fall 2014, the college had 538 students, according to IPEDS, meaning Goddard’s enrolment fell by half in less than a decade.

University of Saint Katherine

Another private institution squeezed by financial pressures, the University of Saint Katherine announced in April it was filing for bankruptcy and closing at the end of the spring semester. It had a short tenure: The Christian university in San Marcos, California, only launched in 2010.

In fall 2022, USK enrolled 232 students, according to IPEDS — a healthy improvement over the 137 who enrolled in fall 2017. But it wasn’t enough to reverse the financial struggles of USK, which operated at a deficit its last two fiscal years.

Wells College

The closure of Wells College stunned faculty, staff and students when officials announced in April that the 156-year-old institution in New York would shutter at the end of the spring semester.

Though the abrupt closure came as a surprise, Wells had been shedding students for years, despite its shift from a women’s college to a coeducational model in 2005, which provided a brief enrolment boost. By autumn 2022, enrolment was down to 357 students, according to IPEDS data. Critics have alleged mismanagement played a part in the closure.

Oregon College of Oriental Medicine

A niche private institution focused on acupuncture, herbal treatments and other alternative healthcare approaches, the Portland-based institution announced in May that it was closing.

Officials at the small college, which enrolled 160 students in fall 2022, according to IPEDS, blamed financial issues “and contraction in Chinese medicine education,” as well as social issues in the city of Portland. Specifically, they pointed to an “increase in crime, drug use and people living unsheltered” near OCOM’s campus, which “gutted the college building’s value.”

OCOM “lost half its student body in the last four years,” according to the closure announcement.

Delaware College of Art and Design

When officials announced in June that the Wilmington-based college was closing in a matter of weeks, they cited the usual financial pressures and declining enrolment. But they also noted “unexpected issues with the rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid.”

The small college had struggled to generate revenue, operating at a deficit for much of the last decade as enrolment dwindled to 129 students in autumn 2022, according to federal data. But officials indicated that the final straw appeared to be the problematic launch of the simplified FAFSA, which was fraught with technical glitches and delays that caused headaches for families trying to navigate financial aid.

Some experts have attributed FAFSA issues to a decline in enrolment of 18-year-old freshmen across the country.

University of the Arts

Mysterious financial challenges — which remain unexplained months later — sank the art school in Pennsylvania, which announced on 1 June that it would close within a matter of days.

The private university, located on prime real estate in Philadelphia, has offered few details on what drove it out of business. But officials noted the institution had “been in a fragile financial state, with many years of declining enrolments, declining revenues, and increasing expenses”.

Officials referred vaguely to a weakened cash position and “significant, unanticipated expenses”.

University of the Arts officials also left students in limbo, cancelling a town hall about the closure at the last minute. That prompted its accreditor, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, to step in and lead an information session in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the US Department of Education and the management firm carrying out the closure.

While Temple initially expressed interest in acquiring UArts, that plan was later dropped.

Pittsburgh Technical College

The closure of Pittsburgh Technical College came after months of acrimony between employees and president Alicia Harvey-Smith, whom they accused of mismanaging the two-year institution.

PTC officials pointed to declining enrolment and inflation—as well as “changing views of higher education” and “orchestrated attacks against the institution”—in a June closure announcement. In an email to Inside Higher Ed, Dr Harvey-Smith laid the blame on “disgruntled former and current employees.”

However, faculty members, who voted no confidence in the president last year, allege that she mismanaged college finances—including by spending $32,000 in college funds to pay a marketing firm to write and edit a book on enrolment management published under her name.

Sources told Inside Higher Ed that enrolment stood at just under 700 students before PTC closed, a steep dive from 1,744 students in fall 2019, which was Dr Harvey-Smith’s first year.

Critics also blamed PTC’s board for failing to stop a runaway financial slide.

Eastern Nazarene College

Citing financial pressures, the small, private Christian college in Massachusetts announced in June that it would close.

In the closure announcement, officials noted “significant financial headwinds in recent years,” adding that the board and multiple presidents had “pursued numerous alternatives to closure” before they decided to cease operations.

IPEDS shows a head count of 541 students in fall 2022, down from 699 in fall 2020.

Union Institute & University

After more than a year of severe financial issues — including regularly missing payroll, being evicted for failing to pay rent on its Cincinnati headquarters and losing access to federal financial aid due to alleged mismanagement of funds — the Ohio institution announced its closure in June.

Union was also hit with a $4.3 million fine from the Education Department for alleged mismanagement of federal student aid dollars, and it faced a state investigation over labour issues.

Though the closure wasn’t official until this summer, Union had paused educational activity and did not offer any classes in the latter part of 2023 or all of 2024. Undergraduate classes were last offered in summer 2023, and the last classes for doctoral students were in fall 2023.

Union was the only college in Ohio designated as a Hispanic-serving institution.

Clarks Summit University

Officials at the small, private Baptist institution in Pennsylvania noted difficult “financial circumstances” when they announced in July the university would close abruptly.

The closure announcement came roughly a month after Clarks Summit furloughed all of its employees, with administrators working for free, in an effort to save costs. However, sustained enrolment losses and financial challenges proved insurmountable as its head count fell from 1,100 students in fall 2012 to 552 in fall 2022, according to federal data.

Mergers, Acquisitions and Strategic Partnerships

While some institutions closed, others embarked on a path forward with a partner. In many cases, these arrangements were cast as strategic partnerships, with colleges stopping short of using the word “merger”. But some appeared to be acquisitions, with larger partners absorbing smaller institutions.

University of Redlands/Woodbury University

In January, the two private California institutions announced plans to merge after quietly signing a letter of intent in December.

Woodbury, the smaller of the two (with 829 students in fall 2022, according to federal data), has struggled financially in recent years, while Redlands has been stable despite enrolment declines; in 2022, Redlands enrolled 3,460 full-time students, IPEDS shows, down from 4,956 in fall 2012.

Redlands has established multiple branch campuses in recent years, beginning with its 2019 acquisition of the San Francisco Theological Seminary, expanding its reach across California.

Bay Path University/Cambridge College

February brought further consolidation when Bay Path University in western Massachusetts announced it had acquired Cambridge College, located across the state in Boston. Both private, non-profit institutions are focused on career education. The deal had been in the works since last summer.

University of Findlay/Bluffton University

Separated by 20 miles, the two private, religiously affiliated institutions in northwest Ohio announced in March that they had reached an agreement on a merger.

While merging their operations, Findlay will remain affiliated with Churches of God, General Conference, while Bluffton University plans to maintain its ties to the Mennonite Church USA.

Pending NCAA approval, their athletic programmes will also remain separate, with Findlay competing in NCAA Division II as the Oilers and the Bluffton Beavers participating in NCAA Division III play.

St. Ambrose University/Mount Mercy University

In May, the two Roman Catholic institutions, located about 80 miles apart in Iowa, announced they were pursuing a “strategic combination.”

The deal is expected to be finalised in 2026, pending regulatory approvals.

The pair “will [then] be fully combined under St. Ambrose with distinct campuses, educational offerings and intercollegiate athletic programmes in both Davenport and Cedar Rapids,” according to the announcement. The Mount Mercy name will be retained, with the integrated site in Cedar Rapids rebranded as Mount Mercy Campus of St. Ambrose University.

Northeastern University/Marymount Manhattan College

The merger announced in May will see Boston-based Northeastern absorb a campus in New York City, extending Northeastern’s already large footprint to 14 campuses worldwide. Since 2011, the university has expanded aggressively and now has campuses in California, Miami, London and elsewhere.

While MMC has experienced enrolment declines in recent years, it remains financially stable. But given challenging headwinds, officials said the college’s governing board saw opportunities to grow its signature programmes in the creative and performing arts through a merger.

California State University Maritime Academy/California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Officials announced in June that the system had recommended the “integration” of the two institutions, a plan the CSU Board of Trustees formally approved last month.

System officials noted that combining operations, resources and governance would provide “a long-term solution to Cal Maritime’s untenable fiscal circumstances.” With 804 students, Cal Maritime is the smallest college in the system and has struggled with enrolment recently.

Lackawanna College/Peirce College

Located roughly two hours apart, the two private institutions in Pennsylvania, which share a focus on adult learners, announced plans to merge in August.

Lackawanna is primarily a two-year college with limited bachelor’s degrees, while Peirce offers two- and four-year degrees and some master’s programmes and graduate certificates as well. Given enrolment challenges across Pennsylvania, leaders of the two institutions told Inside Higher Ed they saw the arrangement as an opportunity to grow and be stronger together.

Going forward, if the merger earns regulatory approval, the two colleges will bear the name of Lackawanna, which has had more stable enrolment and finances in recent years.

Keystone College/Washington Institute for Education and Research

Struggling Keystone announced a merger agreement in August that would see it join forces with the fledgling think tank in DC.

Keystone would be a subsidiary of WIER, according to the merger announcement.

However, Keystone faces numerous challenges beyond regulatory approvals of the merger. Last month, its accreditor, MSCHE, alleged that the college failed to comply with various standards — including in areas such as governance and finance — and could lose accreditation by 31 December. Keystone remains accredited while the college appeals the decision by MSCHE.

Earlier this year, MSCHE warned that Keystone was “in danger of imminent closure”.

University of Texas at San Antonio/University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

The University of Texas system announced in August it will merge the two institutions into one.

The merger will combine UTSA, a large research university with more than 34,000 students, and a health-focused institution that enrols about 3,500 students, according to federal data. The merger will create the third-largest research university in Texas, according to officials.

Ursuline College/Gannon University

The two Catholic institutions, located under 100 miles apart, announced a strategic partnership in September.

Gannon is the larger and more financially stable of the two, enrolling 4,665 students in fall 2022 compared to 950 for Ursuline, federal data shows. Officials noted in the announcement that Gannon, which also has a campus in Florida, had been looking to expand its operations, while Ursuline had been seeking a partnership with a larger institution.

The move seems akin to an acquisition, with an FAQ page noting that “Gannon University will replace the Ursuline Sisters as the sole member of the Ursuline College Corporation”.

Penn State Law/Penn State Dickinson Law

Pennsylvania State University is combining its two separately accredited law schools into one.

The university split Penn State, which is located on the flagship campus in State College, and Penn State Dickinson Law, in Carlisle, a decade ago, but officials backtracked on the move this fall. Penn State attributed the move to enrolment challenges, noting “an extremely competitive marketplace for legal education”, given that there are nine other law schools in the state. The merger has raised concerns among faculty about transparency, with some questioning the rationale behind the reunification.

The J.D. class of 2028 will be the first to attend the combined law school.

Seattle University/Cornish College

Earlier this month, officials at the two institutions announced a merger that will have the much larger university absorb the small, fiscally challenged art school.

Seattle University enrolled nearly 4,200 students in fall 2022, compared to 458 for Cornish, according to federal enrolment data. Cornish has faced enrolment declines in recent years and declared financial exigency in 2020 as it struggled to recover from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The move comes after Seattle U announced plans to create a new art museum in March.

This is an edited version of a story that first appeared on Inside Higher Ed.