Can Small Colleges Save Themselves From the ‘Death Spiral’?
Low student enrollment and revenue drops are putting pressure on small colleges and universities.
Seniors line up before the final commencement ceremony at Sweet Briar College, a women’s liberal arts college in Virginia.
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It has become increasingly hard for small colleges in the U.S. to stay afloat, and a new report suggests the next few years won’t be any easier for the institutions.
Moody’s Investors Service predicted on Friday that the closure rate for small schools would triple by 2017 and that the rate of mergers would double. Two small colleges, Sojourner-Douglass College and Marian Court College, have closed this year, and six schools closed in 2014. By 2017, mergers are expected to increase to four to six per year, up from their previous average of two to three per year.