Academic closures, mergers, and cuts: August-September 2024 edition

How are American colleges and universities responding to institutional pressures? Today I’ll share exemplary stories from the past two months. (I’ve been blogging this theme for months now (March 1, March 20, March 28, April, May, June, July), partly as evidence for some points in the book I’m writing.) 1 Closing colleges and universities Let’s start with a big picture observation. The total number of American higher education institutions shrank by 2%, “from 5,918 in 2022–23 to 5,819 in 2023–24,” according to federal data.  In terms of absolute numbers, “[t]he number of Title IV institutions in the U.S. and other jurisdictions decreased from 5,918 in... [Read more...]