Blogs about the decline in traditional higher education were first published in 2017 and 2021. Here and here are links to them. There were many disconnects between what colleges and universities offered students versus what they needed back in 2017, as student debt was ballooning, the business model was becoming increasingly unstable, and enrollment was declining.
After Nearly A Year Of The Pandemic,
The landscape began to become more complex as enrollments continued to decline, demographic trends worsened, public opinion of higher education became increasingly negative, student debt was crippling, ROI for students was further diminished, and more post-secondary alternatives to college were emerging. Several colleges and universities already operated in the red by 2019, before the COVID crisis, with additional declines in enrollment and revenues to come.
In The Intervening Time, What Have You Done?
It is arguable that a substantial swath of the higher education industry is at risk of collapse as a result of the underlying fundamentals deteriorating. Those aren’t hyperboles. There are several underlying factors that have contributed towards the decline of college degrees as credentials for employment, including changing consumer behavior, market shifts, increased student attrition, and unsustainable business models.
Storefront retail is an excellent analogy for the private sector. The number of institutions that have closed between 2010 and 2019 rose to over 1,200, most of which were for-profit. The 2019-2020 school year alone saw 53 non-profit colleges close or merge between 2016 and 2019. Increasingly, for-profit schools are closing and merging with non-profit schools.
With Pandemic Funding And Short-Term Cash Management Initiatives Exhausted,
This trend will substantially increase over the next several years. A decline of 10% has occurred in college enrollment since the pandemic began in 2011, with 4.1 million fewer students attending than in 2011. The number of students enrolled has decreased by 662,000 since the spring of 2021.
From 71% in 2019 to 48% in 2022, we’ve seen a dramatic drop in the number of high school graduates intending to attend four-year college, and many students are choosing high value, short-term, industry-focused programs instead of traditional college programs.
A demographic decline of another 15% in college enrollment is likely to occur by 2029 purely as a result of demographics. Financially and in terms of general wellness, students who are enrolled today are far more vulnerable than they were ten years ago.
Students leave college every year because of financial crises that are time-sensitive and cost less than $500. The number of dropouts in the U.S. has increased nearly 9% since 2018, with many returning to school eventually.
Furthermore,
32% of students enrolled in community colleges and 41% of those enrolled in bachelor’s degrees reported thinking about leaving school due to mental health problems in the first half of 2022. The affordability of college has affected enrollment plans for 70% of college students as of late 2021.
Though most families are perceived as having weathered the pandemic financially intact, 36% of parents reported that they had drawn from their children’s college funds to mitigate the financial impact of the pandemic.
According To Statistics,
American family incomes have declined more than 10% since 2007 when adjusted for inflation! Not just now, but for years to come, the situation is potentially bleak when we combine financial/economic, mental health, and family issues.
A Growing Number Of Non-Credit And Non-Degree Programs Are Offered,
During 2020, enrollment in coding boot camps grew by 70%, and Amazon Web Services offered short-term certificate courses to over half a million students in May, 2022. Similar numbers were recorded at Grow with Google, Microsoft Education Center, and other large non-college, post-secondary educational providers. The millions of people taking workplace training and upskilling that is delivered by industry isn’t even included here.
Unless You Work For Amazon,
AWS will provide upskilling courses to 29 million people for free by 2025, no typo there. Additionally, a survey conducted during the pandemic found that 63% of adults who were unemployed preferred a non-degree skills training or certificate program to a degree program, regardless of level of education.
In The Broader Post-Secondary Ecosystem,
It’s clear that many students are moving away from college degrees as a preferred option when they have a choice. In order to improve their grades, students are also taking advantage of professional writing services. As one of the most experienced and professional writing agencies worldwide, Assignment help Cardiff works all over the globe.
Additionally…
Due to the profound market changes and disruptions impacting much of higher education, there will simply not be enough demand to support all of today’s thousands of colleges and universities in the next decade without foundational changes in both funding models and consumer behavior, neither of which are likely.
For The Foreseeable Future,
About a third of the wealthiest and most exclusive colleges and universities will continue to operate with viable financial models—although at the bottom, exclusivity may be reduced. There will be a spectrum of risks for the other two thirds, with some simply unable to survive at all, and others operating like “zombie” institutions, technically still alive, but shells of what they used to be.
Almost One-Third Of Colleges Were Spending,
More than they were receiving before the pandemic, and many have exhausted all short-term methods for preserving cash (laying off employees, borrowing, eliminating sports teams and academic majors, delaying maintenance and accounts payable, etc.).
In Addition,
CARES Act funding for higher education, approximately $50 billion dollars, has been disbursed and mostly spent in response to the pandemic. As a result of this substantial cash influx, many institutions were able to cope with cash crises and even insolvency, but there is no more cash coming and those institutions at greatest risk will soon go out of business.
