The Layoff.com: Observations of College Meltdown in Real Time (Updated September 29, 2024)

The Layoff.com is a "simple discussion board" for workers who would like to learn more about the rumors or possibility of job cuts in their organization. It's also been helpful for us to understand what has been happening behind the scenes in the US Higher Education business. 

 

We have been observing and participating on this website for more than a dozen years, watching the fall of Corinthian Colleges (Everest College, Wyotech, and Heald), ITT Tech, Education Management Corporation (the Art Institutes and South University), the partial collapse of Apollo Group (University of Phoenix), Perdoceo (formerly Career Education Corporation), and Laureate International, and the transformation of Kaplan University to Purdue University Global and Bridgepoint Education (Ashford University) to University of Arizona Global.   

As the College Meltdown has advanced, we have also observed a number of private schools collapse and public colleges and universities struggle. As enrollments continue to drop, we can expect more layoffs to occur and for education related businesses to struggle more.  

 

The contents of this article are updated periodically, to illustrate trends in the College Meltdown.  The most recent update was published September 29, 2024.  2U, the online program manager for elite university certificates has been the poster child in 2024, but there are many other companies and institutions in peril.  

 

2U and edX 

 

Adtalem Global Education  

 

Albright College

Barnes and Noble College Booksellers

 

Cengage

Chegg

 

Concordia University, Ann Arbor

Coursera

 

Delta State University 

 

DeVry University 

 

Emerson College 

 

Gwynedd-Mercy University 

 

Keystone College  

 

Maximus 

 

National American University 

 

Navient 

 

Northern Illinois University 

 

Penn State University  

 

Perdoceo   

 

Saint Cloud State University 

 

Sallie Mae  

 

Udemy 

University of Arizona 

University of Maryland Global 

 

University of New Orleans 

 

University of North Carolina, Asheville

 

University of Phoenix 

 

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 

 

Walden University 

 

Western Illinois University   

West Virginia University 

 

Wittenberg University 

America's Most Endangered Private Colleges in 2019

Related article: Endangered Colleges include HBCUs, Small Religious Colleges (2016)
Related article: Another American College to Close (Bryan Alexander, 2019)
Related article: Private College Revenues and the US College Meltdown (2018)
Related article: College Meltdown Shows Few Signs of Slowing (2019)


In 2016, Jeff Selingo and EY published a report stating that more than 800 US colleges were facing major downsizing, mergers, and closures. But their report did not list the schools most likely to fail. It would appear that higher education and business insiders, including government agencies and credit rating agencies, know which schools are likely to merge or fail, but they are unwilling to share it with the public.

The Department of Education publishes a list of schools in financial trouble, called the Heightened Cash Monitoring List, but the list is small and is not the best predictor of future school failures. The PEPS School Closings list is helpful, but it's most often a post-mortem of colleges that have already failed.

Would it be possible to create a list by examining just a few variables? I would suggest these variables, in combination, when looking at the survivability of individual US private colleges:

Enrollment <1000 students, and at least
Five consecutive years of student enrollment losses, and at least
Five consecutive years of revenue declines, and
Revenue declines of more than 15% over the last 5 years, and
Endowments less than $5 million

What variables do you think should be included? And what are the intangibles that must be considered? For example, HBCUs have been able to survive for decades despite lack of government support. Loss of accreditation, on the other hand, can be a death sentence for almost any college.