A recent trend in the US is the closure of many smaller colleges. The lack of enrollment, compounded by higher inflation and uncertain economic times, has caused many young people to reevaluate whether they will pursue higher education or just go straight to the workforce.
This development has negative implications for the US. First of all, while there are subpar schools that should really close down, a vast majority of the smaller colleges across the US provide the valuable service of providing college graduates for the workforce.
According to a CNBC news report, private school closures outnumber public schools, with 91 small colleges being shutdown or merged since 2016 to present. More than 60,000 students have been affected.[1] The reason cited is lower enrollment as less students matriculate each year, because there is a population decline in areas like the Northeast and the Midwest. Experts have called it an “enrollment cliff.”
These schools often do not have extremely wealthy alumni who can give large endowment checks. The $14bn federal Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund, which needs to be spent by 2023, will also run out soon.[1] This was part of the original pandemic stimulus, but is not expected to augment school budgets in the future.
A school closure hits young people, especially those who have invested maybe two to three years of their most productive years in that school, the hardest. There is often a psychological setback where the student has put in a lot of time and effort, only to be let down by the school. But it’s not just the student’s loss. We all lose too.
The CNBC news report further stated that when student college life is interrupted by a closure, they run the increased risk of not completing college, even in other places especially if they delay their move to other school programs.[1]
Ivy League universities like Harvard, Stanford, Yale, MIT and others, while these may produce the cream of the crop, are not enough to satisfy the demands of the workforce. Although trends like AI threaten to downsize the number of people who will find work in the future, we still need to think about what happens to our youth if majority of them are uneducated. Their work and career advancement opportunities are limited, especially as the world becomes more sophisticated.
College trains people to think critically, and not just be a cog in the wheel. This is so important for us to remain competitive vis a vis China and other countries who want to eat our lunch.
So what can these underfunded colleges do before they throw in the towel? One approach that seems to work in many cases is a tie-up with industry to adjust their curriculum to courses needed by companies in that region.
For example, regions with a lot of high tech manufacturing can augment their theoretical courses with more lab courses in line with what particular companies need. In return, companies and industry associations agree to fund these select colleges, who help them with their workforce requirements.
Chipmaking for example, is a highly complex process. Running these machines and processes will require more than trade school education. Without this industry-academe partnership, which goes beyond that of helping to fund the schools, high tech companies like Intel and AMD will also find it hard to hire people that they need.
Some are able to make it by really cutting costs. Cutting excess staff, expensive lab facilities, and others. At some point however, the quality of education suffers.
While we cannot save all these colleges that are going under, the government and concerned alumni should do all they can to ensure that higher education is available to all those who deserve and want it.
SOURCES
- CNBC report on college closures https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBENl0GVxzA