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Home Front: Culture Wars
Expert Predicts up to 25 Percent of American Colleges Will Close in Next Two Decades
2019-09-04
[LI] For years now, there have been warnings that the higher education bubble was going to burst. While we have witnessed the closure of many small schools this year already, one researcher at Harvard who studies higher education says the worst is yet to come.

Michael Horn, who studies and writes about colleges, suggests the rising cost of tuition and the economic downturn of 2008, among other factors, have created a perfect storm.

From CBS This Morning:
Expert predicts 25% of colleges will "fail" in the next 20 years

For the first time in 185 years, there will be no fall semester at Green Mountain College in western Vermont. The college, which closed this year, isn’t alone: Southern Vermont College, the College of St. Joseph, and Atlantic Union College, among others, have shuttered their doors, too.

The schools fell victim to trends in higher education ‐ trends that lead one expert to believe that more schools will soon follow.

"I think 25% of schools will fail in the next two decades," said Michael Horn, who studies education at Harvard University. "They’re going to close, they’re going to merge, some will declare some form of bankruptcy to reinvent themselves. It’s going to be brutal across American higher education."

Part of the problem, Horn explained, is that families had fewer kids after the 2008 recession, meaning that there will be fewer high school graduates and fewer college students. "Fundamentally, these schools’ business models are just breaking at the seams," he said.

The video report begins with the story of the recent closure of Green Mountain College in Vermont. When Robert Allen took over as president of the school in 2016, he knew almost immediately that it was too late to save it:
Posted by:Besoeker

#13  The number of six figure administrators who do either absolutely nothing or who perform completely unnecessary and outright silly tasks is terrifying. Even more terrifying is the fact that the college eagerly lets go of faculty and lower level staff (secretaries, etc) and downsizes every department and area of the college so that they can keep all of these goons (and whenever possible hire more).
Posted by: Vernal Hatrick   2019-09-04 15:39  

#12  Faster please.

These are criminal institutions. The Children come out of them dumber when they came out of the Womb
Posted by: newc   2019-09-04 14:14  

#11  Too few, too long.

50% 5 years.

Hopefully.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2019-09-04 11:51  

#10  The above proposal of course assumes also an end to open borders and an overhaul of immigration policy to favor those with advanced skills. No more of this insane policy of swamping our low end labor market with an imported underclass.
Posted by: Lex   2019-09-04 08:51  

#9  Lex's proposal is solid, but it is contingent upon the return of American industry, a growing economy, and a willingness to hire American tradesmen, not less costly Amigos.
Posted by: Besoeker   2019-09-04 08:48  

#8  I second Lex's proposal.
Posted by: DarthVader   2019-09-04 08:44  

#7  Trim tuition by jettisoning the Administrators who don't teach, the SJW majors that they force other productive majors to take courses in
Posted by: Frank G   2019-09-04 08:40  

#6  the worst is yet to come.


Not everyone would agree with that.
Posted by: JohnQC   2019-09-04 07:51  

#5  Just in from Norway. They are having problems but Sweden much worse.
Posted by: Dale   2019-09-04 05:28  

#4  End the faculty and administers enrichment student loan program. If you want college money earn it or commit yourself to service programs like those for Public Health and the GI Bill.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2019-09-04 05:15  

#3  Too little, too late?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru PB   2019-09-04 05:05  

#2  They will do as Hospitals and news medias do and merge. Not finding a suitor, closure certainly. I suspect online activity will dramatically increase(last gasp). As the population ages and influx of immigrants poor and lacking skills, standards will be reduced. 70% of students at our local college are on assistance programs now. Minorities of the normally privileged group.
Posted by: Dale   2019-09-04 04:18  

#1  We need far fewer colleges, a far lower % of 18 year-olds going on to four-year colleges, and far MORE vocational training & trade apprenticeship programs.

Only about 20% of the population needs a college degree - and that's roughly the % of the population that can handle higher-order abstract reasoning of the sort needed to do advanced math, science and other forms of complex analysis.

Every other American should be taught a skilled trade - and our corporations should be given every possible incentive to hire these trained and skilled Americans.
Posted by: Lex   2019-09-04 01:55  

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