The Shrinking University is Here
A major Higher Education System will begin campus consolidation plans in the fall of 2021.
In early October 2020, a plan to consolidate 6 of the 14 universities of the Penn State System into 2 universities was approved by the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. This is due to reduced student enrollments and higher student costs, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Board of Governors acknowledges there will be job loss at the respective campuses, and, the best estimate is the loss of 674 positions., or roughly 7% of the workforce starting with the academic year of 2021-2022. That would be this fall semester.
If your student is planning on attending Bloomsburg, Lock Haven or Mansfield, or California, Edinboro, or Clarion State Universities in PA, you may want to check in on this issue. This consolidation will impact their majors and location plans at these six institutions for the foreseeable future.
However- don’t relax because you don’t live or send your kids to school in PA. Just because it hasn’t been done (yet!) in our backyard, doesn’t mean it can’t happen. In fact, Pennsylvania is an early adopter of what will happen across all the states’ Higher Education Systems in the next several years. Consolidation and yes, even closure, will be made necessary by the declining availability of traditional-age college students.
What can you as a parent do to stay in tune with this trend?
At your student’s likely school choice, check enrollment for 2013, 2016 & 2019. It should be either steady or climbing. It should NOT be declining.
Cross-check to be sure there weren’t some special “deals” to boost attendance. Three schools in the NC system are still offering sweetheart deals of $500/semester tuition to prop up their sagging student populations. It has helped increase applications and enrollment, right now. I’m just waiting for them to realize it is financially unsustainable.
Check to make sure your student’s major is a strong one and has a large cohort of students working through that program. Archeology of Art or Basket Mathematics could be an easy target for elimination due to underwhelming interest. Eliminating smaller selected majors can be a starting point on the road to consolidation.
This is not a fluke. This is going to happen in every public statewide higher education system. It is just a matter of when they will take corrective action. Student enrollments have been declining since 2013. While 2021 is showing massive over-enrollments, that is because the Covid-19 Gap Year students of 2020 are coming back into the system. The year 2025 will mark the beginning of the waning birth year cohorts, resulting in more drops in enrollment. Short of making new students, it will shrink academia significantly.
When you combine the decreasing numbers of students available with the super high costs to attend college, change is going to happen. Keep this information in the back of your mind as you start to strategize with your student about their educational future. Don’t get caught blindsided because you thought it wouldn’t happen in your state. It’s coming. It’s just a matter of when and how it will play out in YOUR backyard.
Next week, let’s look at what almost HALF of the states are allowing at Community Colleges. I think they may be on to something. Will it happen in YOUR state??
Until Next Time,
All My Best,
Bonnie Burkett
