US & UK Colleges/Universities in Dire Financial Straits

US colleges are cutting majors and slashing programs after years of putting it off. 

 

These decisions stem from budget deficits exacerbated by declining enrollment and rising operational costs. 

 

College enrollment declined during the pandemic, but officials hoped the figures would recover to pre-Covid levels and had used federal relief money to prop up their budgets in the meantime.

 

Higher education made up some ground last fall and in the spring semester, largely as community college enrollment began to rebound, National Student Clearinghouse Research Center data showed. 

 

The trend for four-year colleges remains worrisome. Even without growing concerns about the cost of college and the long-term burden of student debt, the pool of young adults is shrinking, the report noted.

 

Many colleges like St. Cloud State already had started plowing through their budget reserves. The university’s enrollment rose to around 18,300 students in fall 2020 before steadily falling to about 10,000 students in fall 2023. Still, spending was far too high for the reduced number of students. The college’s budget shortfall totaled $32 million over the past two years, forcing sweeping cuts.

 

Smaller colleges have taken more extreme steps, closing their doors. That happened at the 1,000-student Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama, the 900-student Fontbonne University in Missouri, the 350-student Wells College in New York and the 220-student Goddard College in Vermont.

 

Cuts, however, appear to be more commonplace. Two of North Carolina’s public universities got the green light last month to eliminate more than a dozen degree programs ranging from ancient Mediterranean studies to physics. 

 

Arkansas State University announced last fall it was phasing out nine programs. Three of the 64 colleges in the State University of New York system have cut programs amid low enrollment and budget woes. 

 

Other schools slashing and phasing out programs include West Virginia University, Drake University in Iowa, the University of Nebraska campus in Kearney, North Dakota State University and, on the other side of the state, Dickinson State University. 

 

Experts say it’s just the beginning. Even schools that aren’t immediately making cuts are reviewing their degree offerings. At Pennsylvania State University, officials are looking for duplicative and under-enrolled academic programs as the number of students shrinks at its branch campuses.

 

And it's not just the US. The UK is no different. 

 

Universities there face a “tipping point” this autumn engulfing some of them in financial crisis, according to vice-chancellors, who say urgent government intervention may be ​needed to stop institutions from going under. 

 

The warnings come as hundreds of thousands of sixth-formers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland await their A-level results this Thursday. Their decisions on where and when to attend higher education will be a make-or-break point for universities. 

 

David Maguire (left), vice-chancellor of the University of East Anglia, said that “an awful lot of institutions are placing extremely large bets on this recruitment round” and warned: “Quite frankly, I don’t think there are enough students to go around”.

 

Sector leaders who spoke to the Guardian said that, until improved long-term funding was secured, the most likely short-term solutions included mergers between institutions, and re-organisations such as pruning departments. 

 

Maguire said that with international student recruitment falling sharply, universities were having to “aggressively” recruit more UK undergraduates in the clearing admissions process.

 

Bridget Phillipson (right), the education secretary, has said that universities should not expect a government bailout, arguing that they are autonomous institutions that should rely on their own resources. 

 

One vice-chancellor – who declined to be named – said this year’s admission round was “doubly dangerous” because declining numbers of domestic and international students were coupled with higher costs, meaning that even compared with a year ago universities were having to spend more while receiving less revenue.

 

Another vice-chancellor said that many universities would have to “cut hard and stumble through” the crisis. 

 

Already 67 institutions are carrying out redundancy and restructuring programs, setting off bruising industrial disputes. On Friday the University and College Union announced that Sheffield Hallam University staff were the latest to vote for strikes next month, in protest at what it said were “unprecedented” job cuts.