They won't close. They will just rely more heavily on foreign students. The primary focus of academia is to remain employed, not to serve the needs of the domestic student population.
(At least 84 public or nonprofit colleges have closed, merged, or announced closures or mergers since March 2020 as of this comment; I think the evidence is strong smaller for profit schools with enrollments <1k will continue to close well into the future)
This only works for exclusive, high prestige schools. Not many rich foreigners are going to pay full freight to send their kids to Western Kentucky University.
America itself and the opportunity to get your foot in the door with a student visa is the prestige factor for many students - the prestige of the university is secondary. That allows a lit of third tier universities to fill their master's programs with international students
The community college I used to work at made its bread and butter from foreign students. Super mega rich parents sent their kids there. Many of them drove expensive cars. Community colleges in the US are actually highly regarded in a lot of places overseas, believe it or not. And this wasn't in some big city either. It was in kind of a town that isn't very well known for being a safe place to walk around at night.
The supply of foreign students does depends on their career prospects in the US(which is getting worse at least in tech) and also the current administration is weighing policies that would cap intake of foreign students.
The current administration is directly and indirectly eliminating the foreign student pipeline. Even if we somehow get out of this morass in the next few years, which is far from guaranteed, the long-term damage will take decades to repair if ever.
The foreign student population, incidentally, had been a big subsidizer of the domestic student population. They pay full tuition and get no domestic financial aid. But that flow is getting shut off, and between the domestic cliff and this self-inflicted international cliff, they will close. A lot of smaller liberal arts colleges have shut down in the last decades and we’re busily working to send the destruction up the food chain.
Third-tier private colleges are already shutting down. In the past few years some examples include Holy Names University, Iowa Wesleyan University, Marymount California University, San Francisco Art Institute, Wells College, and the list goes on. Colleges with minimal name recognition have no ability to attract foreign students.
In medicine and law, it is unethical and sometimes illegal to choose your course of action based on profitability against the needs of the client. Teaching has been traditionally been held to the same ethical standard.
You mean, is there any state funded system in which the primary drive of the system is to elrotect and expand itself, even at the expense of providing the good ir service for which it was created?
I can believe that higher education is vital to an educated, critical thinking electorate (as well as developing well rounded citizens) while also believing that the current US college system is highly dysfunctional, trapping people in non dischargeable student loan debt for little lifetime wage premium or increased employment opportunity. I fully support community colleges, for example, as efficient education infrastructure. I have no degree credential, I am a high school dropout, but have used community colleges to learn (welding and fabrication skills) and was offered a job right after receiving certifications for those blue collar classes.
“The purpose of a system is what it does.” The current system sucks, and improvement is needed.
toomuchtodo|4 months ago
U.S. colleges poised to close in next decade, expert says - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45171434 - September 2025
Looming 'demographic cliff': Fewer college students and fewer graduate - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42634596 - January 2025
Predicting College Closures and Financial Distress [pdf] - https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/frbp/assets/working-... - December 2024
BestColleges: Tracking College Closures and Mergers - https://www.bestcolleges.com/research/closed-colleges-list-s...
(At least 84 public or nonprofit colleges have closed, merged, or announced closures or mergers since March 2020 as of this comment; I think the evidence is strong smaller for profit schools with enrollments <1k will continue to close well into the future)
terminalshort|4 months ago
Calavar|4 months ago
olyjohn|4 months ago
relaxing|4 months ago
gyomu|4 months ago
sbmthakur|4 months ago
https://thebusinessfrontier.com/trump-tells-universities-to-...
dhosek|4 months ago
The foreign student population, incidentally, had been a big subsidizer of the domestic student population. They pay full tuition and get no domestic financial aid. But that flow is getting shut off, and between the domestic cliff and this self-inflicted international cliff, they will close. A lot of smaller liberal arts colleges have shut down in the last decades and we’re busily working to send the destruction up the food chain.
nradov|4 months ago
jeremyjh|4 months ago
wrp|4 months ago
readthenotes1|4 months ago
History says no...
jgsser|4 months ago
toomuchtodo|4 months ago
“The purpose of a system is what it does.” The current system sucks, and improvement is needed.