Posted on 11/13/2019 6:35:05 AM PST by karpov
Nationwide, higher education enrollment has been trending down for several years. According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 2019 was the eighth straight year of decline, with an overall drop of nearly 10 percent since 2011.
The reasons for this are many, including political, economic, and social factors. But the main one is demographic: Fewer students are graduating from high schoolsnot because graduation rates are down, but because birth rates fell by about 4 percent from 1990 to 2001.
Unfortunately, its only going to get worse. The number of live births in this country began another steep decline in 2008 following the Great Recessionone that is still ongoing. As a graph created by the National Center for Health Statistics and published in Bloomberg clearly illustrates, 2018 saw 12 percent fewer births than 2007, with no rebound in sight.
All of this means that, while college enrollments might fluctuate somewhat over the next several years, in 2026when the children born in 2008 and after begin reaching college-ageenrollments will plunge.
As The Chronicle of Higher Education points out, and the Bloomberg article affirms, The Great Enrollment Crash will disproportionately affect community colleges, mid-sized regional universities, and small liberal arts colleges, twenty of which have closed their doors just since 2016. The well-endowed, elite privates will no doubt be just fine, as will large state flagships, with their popular football teams and waiting lists. But many smaller schools will be hurtingand more will probably join the defunct list.
The challenge for those institutions, then, is to devise a plan for surviving the crash.
Unfortunately, most of the advice theyre receiving from The Chronicle of Higher Education, Bloomberg, and elsewhere involves doubling down on what theyre doing now
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
There may not be enough cadre to bootstrap teaching of traditional Liberal Arts remaining in the system. I know a guy who bailed out of an English PhD program at a major, semi-conservative Southern university around 15 years ago. He came to realize that as a white male his career prospects were non-existent. He re-tooled and was very successful in business. But to the original point, they had already run off most who werent pushing the gender/racial BS that long ago.
See my previous post. VDHs and Larry Sinclairs are few and far between. I dont have an answer, other than perhaps true university level Prager U courses.
Funny: in 1994 I was finally asked to be a part of a panel at the university about improving education at the University of Dayton.
I used the “Contract with America” to present a “Contract with UD,” which caused everyone to squirm. I said almost what you said:
*Cut all administrators by 30%
*ALL administrator (i.e., deans, provosts) must publish at least one article or book per year.
*ALL administrators must teach at least one class, preferably freshman level.
Needless to say, I was never again invited to speak to the faculty.
Larry SINCLAIR?
I think you mean Larry Schweikart. I’m not aware that Larry Sinclair did anything except fondle Zero’s flute.
Help and guide young people to the truth, purpose and beauty in literature, architecture, history and philosophy.
Then they can ask and find answers to life and work.
Or is that too radical?
Mea culpa fine sir! Ill claim posting while distracted (Im at an event) + damn you autocorrect + cerebral flatulence. Or something!
Suck it up Lefties.
All those third and fourth trimester abortions left their mark . . . on your jobs.
Don't let him buffalo ya, Lar. He was calling you a fayg.
O, I do SO like provoking a fight between my good friends. :) :) :)
There are too many private liberal arts colleges. Probably up to 50% of them will close. The surviving ones will get bigger. Harvard and the like will not suffer at all.
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