Number of colleges continues to shrink

[Alpha]

It looks like a trend
Number of colleges shrinks again, including publics and private nonprofits (insidehighered.com)

[sanantone]

This is wonderful!

[dfrecore]

Not really. CC's closing is a bad thing - the more of those we have, spread out where people can access them, the better - and those were on the list of closures too.

[bjcheung77]

I don't really understand what's happening in the educational landscape anymore, changes must be made to sustain the institutions, I just feel for the private/not for profit ones, they seem to be hit hard... the for profits closing might be a good thing for these hanging on for a rough remainder of their ride... There are still plenty schools left to chose from though, that's over 6 thousand in the info graphic!

[sanantone]

Not really.  CC's closing is a bad thing - the more of those we have, spread out where people can access them, the better - and those were on the list of closures too.

Over the past three years, not that many CCs have closed. The author was engaging in a bit of sensationalism. CCs oftentimes have a greater percentage of students taking online courses than other types of colleges. So, the only thing that would be greatly affected would be the vocational programs that require hands-on training. But, if a CC is not enrolling enough students to sustain or justify physical operations, then it's time to close or merge. That sucks for people who live in underserved areas and can't afford to move, but if you want to keep a CC open to serve a small number of people, then you'll have to be willing to spend a disproportionate amount of tax dollars on each student in that given area. As the article stated, some of these CCs have converted to 4-year colleges, so they're not gone. They're offering bachelor's degrees on top of what they were already offering.

In regards to the 31% of 4-year for-profits and 29% of 2-year for-profits that have closed, that is music to my ears. Most of those 4-year institutions are primarily online anyway.