Quest U in Canada suspending operations after this semester:
The Quest University Board of Governors voted to suspend academic programming following
completion of the current academic year in April 2023. This action is being taken so the Board
and the Executive can focus on restructuring finances and operations. The University will
continue current operations through the Spring and then undertake an evaluation as to when it
may be able to resume future enrollments and full academic programming.
Quest was always an oddity in Canada. It is a private university with no religious affiliation. (Private universities in Canada are religiously affiliated, except Catholic universities which are public but definitely Catholic-lite. Long story).
Maybe Northeastern will take over the campus. 
Agreed with @TomSrOfBoston, Quest was kind of a weird setup for Canada. I remember reading articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education when it was founded, and it was pretty clear that it wasn’t just an attempt to import a more US-like model of higher education to Canada, it was also making a political statement. Either of those alone is a heavy lift for a new university, but both together? Yeah, it seemed in a bit of trouble from the start.
Finlandia University has announced that it’s not enrolling students for the fall, and will be completely shutting down. Students are being given the option to transfer to a number of other colleges in the region, with memoranda of understanding to allow degree completion for current students.
That’s a pretty big deal, although I honestly am surprised that it stayed open as long as it did. Sad to see it close, though - it was important to the Finnish population, and it was an important part of the community.
Agreed on all counts.
I feel like this one is being handled better than a lot of the mid-spring closure announcements I’ve seen the past few years—pretty clearly, they actually did some solid work to make sure their students won’t be severely affected.
Fascinating article from Wall Street Journal, summer of '22, regarding mergers and acquisitions and closings of colleges. Most interesting is Northeastern’s vision in acquiring other campuses (the Mills College acquisition was the deal of the century), and a Penn prof of higher ed’s prediction that we’re gonna see 500 4 yr colleges close in the relatively near future. Here’s what should be a free link.
Apropos of nothing, every time I see this thread title at the suggested links at the bottom of CC, I do a little jump and think “oh no did Peace College in Raleigh NC shut down??” So I finally went to check, and I’m so glad to see that it’s still there, now called “Peace University.”
“Most of the bids haven’t gone anywhere because the schools are too rural or are out of step with Northeastern’s agenda, Mr. Armini said, but talks are in progress with one private liberal arts college on the East Coast.”
I am curious to know what college that is!
There have been rumors that Northeastern would absorb neighboring Wentworth Institute of Technology. That would certainly solve the campus crowding issue.
I was reading along just fine until I came to this: “ Dr. Hendricks, who reviewed the case as part of his research, traced Mills’s vulnerability to a decision several years ago to add two essays to the application for admission. That resulted in fewer applicants, leading to sharply lower enrollment and revenue.” Seriously??? Adding two essays to the admissions application resulted in a sharp drop off in enrollment & revenue? I find that a very strange cause / effect relationship.
I don’t think that’s too surprising. I can see how kids might be willing to write two additional essays for a highly desired college, but maybe not want to bother for a college lower down on their priority list. And oftentimes, kids end up choosing a college in May that they had literally no interest in back when applications were due, but it’s not an option if they didn’t apply.
My kid ended up choosing a school that he only applied to under duress (at mom’s prodding, mostly because the application was free if submitted before Dec and no extra work/essays were required). And he got into almost all the schools he applied to, including all the ones that we thought were his top choices, so it wasn’t because of a lack of options. He loves it there, so mom was absolutely right 
It is no surprise that making application easier (e.g. fewer essays, no application fee, allowing shared applications (Common / Coalition / Universal / state-specific / …)) increases the number of applicants. Doing the opposite is likely to have the opposite effect.
It’s one thing to increase applicants. It’s quite another to increase enrollment. If students apply just because it’s an easy application, I find it hard to believe that the application increase actually leads to an appreciable increase in enrollment. Maybe, given statistics. But clearly true interest in the school, which is what generally translates to matriculation, had been waning prior to the addition of a couple essays … because an interested student would write the essays. I say this from the POV of someone who was in charge of admissions for a small, private school. I had lots of applicants who just wanted to see if they would get accepted - they had no interest in actually coming.
But sorry … that’s off topic, and I apologize.
People have been predicting the closure of massive numbers (here: 500) colleges in the “near future” for decades and decades.
Eventually who knows? Maybe they’ll be right! And they’ll probably take a victory lap—though it would invite a parallel to the old joke that economists have accurately predicted eleven of the past six recessions.
Colleges, for whatever reason, are pretty resilient businesses. I have no doubt that we’ll see more fail the next few years than usual, but that’s because we’ve seen a pretty low number the past few years due to infusions of federal covid-related funding. I seriously don’t see a massive wave of closures coming—maybe a solid ripple, but not a restructuring of the sector.
I live in the Bay Area, where Mills is located. For the last 2-3 decades, whenever Mills was in the local news, it was because students and faculty were protesting the latest plan by the administration to save the school, and the administration always seemed to cave. As a result, Mills was never able to solve its financial problems. Two essays for admission may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back, but the school was having problems long before then.
Up until the '90s, the place was very well respected. The reputation of the school really started going downhill after that. To me it felt like it had become a mini-version of Evergreen State.
Formerly, Suomi College. Finlandia University in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula will close.
“Steep decline in interest” in college among other reasons
This time may be different. Take a look at the US Census population pyramid. If I am reading the graphic correctly, that bump at about the 14-15 years of age will start going to college next year. After that it looks like a decreasing number of 18 year olds for the next 15 years. Maybe more, given the birth statistics over the past decade!
I see several challenges ahead: 1. As the population of the US gets more diverse, more students with less average parental incomes will find college unaffordable. 2. As the service economy grows and manufacturing becomes more reliant on automation, young people will seek out shorter courses that get them career ready – expect to see more bootcamps, 1 year certificate courses, uptick in trades etc. 3. Birth rate – self explanatory.
Diverse in what categories? How will there be more students with “less average” parental incomes? By definition, there won’t be more people with incomes below average.
Are there data suggesting a demographic shift, where college-age students disproportionately come from families with incomes below average?
Maybe I’m misunderstanding. Do you mean that you anticipate more students from lower income families will be interested in college in the future?
Income difference between white and non-white families.