Step within the stone gates of a liberal arts college, and it’s easy to see the appeal: small classes and sprawling lawns, neo-Gothic architecture and modern amenities. When such institutions were established, many hoped they’d foster an intellectual “awakening” among students. A string of recent closures suggests this mission has gone astray — and it’s college administrators who need the wake-up call.
The recent decision to close Hampshire College in Massachusetts is one such warning. Despite multiyear efforts to fundraise and refinance debts, the school struggled to overcome a precipitous decline in enrollment, which had halved since the early 2000s. Hampshire is hardly alone. According to one estimate, more than a quarter of the nation’s 1,700 private nonprofit four-year colleges and universities, serving some 670,000 students, are at risk of closing or merging within the next decade.
Simply put, graduates want jobs. Despite recent improvements, unemployment among young adults with a bachelor’s degree remains high, and uncertainty prevails about the effect of artificial intelligence on entry-level work. Yet far from seeking college as a pathway to employment, teens now question whether a degree is worth the trouble. Enrollment among recent high school graduates has fallen 8 percentage points since 2016.
For liberal arts colleges, this crisis of confidence couldn’t have come at a worse time. Starting last year, the population of 18-year-olds began to shrink, thanks to declining birth rates. Immigration restrictions sought by the White House, meanwhile, have sharply limited the pool of international applicants, who often pay full price.
Demographics aside, the challenge facing colleges is largely self-inflicted. Sliding academic standards and lenient grading — meant to placate students — have cheapened degrees at all but the most elite schools. That students increasingly doubt the value of a product they once demanded should put faculty and administrators on notice.