25% of colleges will fail in next 20 years

A new report from CBS News:
Expert predicts 25% of colleges will fail in the next 20 years

 

https://www.educationdive.com/news/tracker-college-and-university-closings-and-consolidation/539961/

 

Three trends....

Apparently in 1969 a survey of college freshman asked why they attended university. Number one response was to develop a philosophy of life. Currently it is to make money. Many skills that have market value can easily be delivered virtually, often without instructors. Accounting is more easily taught via cbt than philosophy.

Typical college aged students are comfortable with a virtual life, no campus required.

As the item noted, fewer college aged students.

Doesn't bode well for anyone desiring a career in academia.

 

Thanks for the link, L.A. I was thinking about that article when I posted the video link.

A notable omission from the Dive list: In 2017, the Lutheran Theological Seminary of Philadelphia merged with the Lutheran Theological Seminary of Gettysburg to become the United Lutheran Seminary. This action on the part of the ELCA denomination is notable here because of the denomination's sale of two of its colleges, Waldorf and Dana, both of which became for-profit schools. (Waldorf was mentioned in a recent thread as being sold to Columbia Southern.)

Damn . . . it's getting so I'll have to start speaking out against every college, whether profit or non-profit.

But seriously, folks, it's almost getting to the point where higher education in general is going down the tubes. Well, not quite almost.

 

You mean like the multitude of people here at DI living in a fantasy world in which they'll spend multi-thousands on a doctorate so they can earn a few hundred dollars as an adjunct while the spend the rest of their lives hopelessly trying to become tenured professors even though they have never taught a day in their lives?

 

Yes, there will be opportunities ad adjuncts, continuing ed and conferences but something which puts bread on the table will be tough. A Phd may make you an interesting Uber driver.

 

The Green Mountain College and Southern Vermont College should merge to become Bernie Sanders University (BSU) will provide free college everyone.

 

Oops, I forgot...Burlington College was managed by his wife was extinct.

 

I endorse this! Lol. I mean, the incompetent, crooked prezident ran a shady "university."

 

There's a number of studies, which I'm sure you're more up to date on than I, that show a demographic shift in likely college bound students. Without significant change, from a numbers game alone, many schools are going to be struggling over the next twenty years.

 

Agreed. Here's a plan hatched for 2020: put in the SAME number of hours building a youtube channel teaching your specialization and launch a $10 course on Udemy. If you're any good, the ROI will be better than the doctorate debt prayer.

 

Now that's actually funny!

 

People used to take college courses for knowledge, nowadays replaced with Social Media, Udemy, SkillShare, EdX, CourseRA, etc. With new technologies leading more prestigious offering college degrees online and with limited campus visitation. I could see this is coming, primarily liberal arts colleges will be defunct soon.

 

You're right- and I think that *possibly* the liberal arts degree will be seen as indulgent. The practicality of a $300k degree for "learning's sake" isn't something everyone wants to do (even if they could, financially). The barrier of obtaining an education is so low right now, that there's no excuse NOT to have necessary skills. Will we even have the patience for the well-educated 25-year-olds who haven't even started their career yet?

EDIT: I wrote "$200k" but realized that there are universities within a couple of hours of me that charge a lot more than that. So, I've edited it to $300k. (Which should be mind-boggling to anyone who can do math.)