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Colleges Shifting Position and Future
by Adam Torkildson
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December 1, 2022
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Upper education is a hallmark of social and economic mobility. It is a means for someone, purely through their own merit, to move up in the world. Forces like affirmative actions and diversity initiatives, while controversial, work towards this end. Although the reality is colleges aren’t quite the powerhouse they used to be. In fact, lots of colleges are seeing a decline in perception and are merging in response.

To start, the shrinking enrollment of colleges and universities has been constant for years. Since the pandemic to March 2022, undergraduate enrollment dropped 9.4%. During the pandemic countless students initially delayed their enrollment and simply never bothered to go back. This is a long term trend though, going back to how colleges are seen.

Prior to the pandemic in 2019, 51% of people considered a college degree very important. Only six years prior that number was at 70%. The value of a college degree is dropping and it is not going unnoticed. Social mobility is shifting away from college and towards online certificates and connections. From 2020 to 2022 more than 10% of low-skill workers shifted to high-skill work. This is a great statistic to see, but the majority didn’t come from college education.

This puts colleges in a hard position where they’re receiving less students and then have less funding to educate. As the degree loses its value the colleges that supply them become less prominent. Today many colleges are struggling to pay their staff properly and some can barely serve their students. 

It’s this struggle to maintain and attract new students that is leading to many colleges closing. It’s a sad reality for many, but an inevitability of the times. Luckily, there is one option that keeps colleges at large as an attractive option, mergers. College mergers occur when two or more colleges combine to stay afloat. This can mean a failing college joins a successful one, or many struggling colleges join together. 

While mergers are great in a few key ways, keeping students records and staff much safer, there are downsides. Most prominently, a loss of identity, student voice, support, and increased costs. Merged colleges are forced to cut programs, silence students, and add costs to maintain their new status. It’s a double-edged sword and it all comes at the hands of the struggle all colleges are facing. 

The future of colleges, then, is somewhat bleak. While there has been a boom in college mergers, mergers which have saved many colleges. A good amount are still forced to completely close, abandoning their students. Until something changes though, this can only be expected. Degrees are not worth as much, colleges are not supplying as much, and students have better avenues. 

Now more than ever the self made American is an attainable dream. The thing is it’s not attainable for all. While online certificates and other digital avenues to money are possible, they rely on a lot of privileged knowledge and time. The loss of higher education as a system would be detrimental to those who truly need it. The future of colleges is uncertain, but their value to society should not be doubted.

The College Merger Explosion: Why Colleges are Failing
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About the author
Adam Torkildson
Adam Torkildson
Adam is a long-time resident of American Fork, UT. He serves in several local service organizations and advises several startups that he's invested in or founded.
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