As competition for students heats up, colleges are struggling financially just to maintain the status quo, according to the report, which didn’t provide a precise definition of non-elite institutions.
“Across the globe, universities are selling non-core assets or shrinking their footprints (physical or academic) to fund ongoing costs — an obviously unsustainable position,” the authors wrote.
U.S. colleges in particular are dealing with challenging demographic trends. A separate analysis from EY-Parthenon based on financial metrics and student outcomes found that 20% of colleges in the U.S. were at financial risk in 2020.
