If you've never heard of this school before it's not a surprise because it's a tiny liberal arts college just outside Boston. I guess they ran out of money. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/12/14/newbury-college-shut-down-spring/s2w8WjwpFXAqUsyNUsjixM/story.html
and then this https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelhorn/2018/12/13/will-half-of-all-colleges-really-close-in-the-next-decade/#4d3be00552e5
and then this https://www.greensboro.com/news/schools/bennett-college-s-message-to-the-community-as-it-works/article_77f7b99b-3fbe-5d47-bb71-da16a7978295.html
I’m surprised that we don’t see more for profit colleges coming in like “white knights” or “vultures” in these types of situations. As far as I can tell, Newbury College didn’t have a bad reputation. Why wouldn’t you bring in your suspiciously named for profit college, that has a half way decent technology platform and rebrand it with a decently named college with a Greater Boston address, decent campus, alumni network, D3 athletics, etc. Easier said than done, I’m sure. A really bad example, that didn’t work was when ITT took over Daniel Webster College: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Webster_College This looks like a struggling NA institution taking over a struggling RA institution, problematic from step 1 I’m sure. Grand Canyon university was able work out it’s issues by going for profit for a period of time, so I’m thinking it could be a possible solution. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canyon_University Surprised there aren’t more opportunist looking at these types of situations. But I could be way wrong here.
Newbury College is one of many liberal arts colleges in and around Boston. I remember them well. At one time in the 90's they seem to have a lot of branch campuses all over the south shore and some in central Massachusetts. I remember this, because the school district I was working in at the time had rented space to the College. There is a glut of Colleges and Universities in the Greater Boston area. If you don't differentiate and innovate, it is hard to see how everyone survives(and not just in Boston).
follow up https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/06/what-its-like-when-your-college-shuts-down/591862/
Thanks for posting this follow up, good read! It does create concern in me that Excelsior College could run into problems financially if the revenue generating nursing program keeps running into headline problems.