Dive Brief:
- Atlantic Union College trustees and the executive committee have voted to close the institution, saying it is no longer financially viable to maintain operations for the Seventh Day Adventist-affiliated institution.
- Baccalaureate programs will be suspended at the end of the current semester, and certificate programs will be phased out "in a teach-out manner" by December.
- Leaders are still working on an academic plan to assist students who are currently enrolled with completing their educations. According to Inside Higher Ed, the institution lost its accreditation in 2011 and ceased operations at that time, but re-opened in 2015.
Dive Insight:
Growing enrollment pressures and decreasing populations may see a number of smaller colleges close as the higher education landscape — which has swelled to include over 7,200 institutions according to the National Center for Education Statistics — right-sizes. Not only are institutions competing for students, they're also competing for donors, who have expressed a preference to give one lump sum to a coalition or group they suspect will provide maximum impact, rather than dividing up the pool to constitute individual gifts to a number of institutions.
The way ahead for smaller institutions is partnerships and coalitions; there remains no doubt that if leaders do not embrace a more collaborative approach, sharing overhead costs and consolidating services, many more institutions will shut their doors in the coming years. Whether it is public schools in one state learning to operate as a system vs. 14 institutions that "generally like each other," as is the case in Pennsylvania, or it is privates located near each other joining together to share resources, greater collaboration among all institution types will be key to the survival of each.