Pre-pandemic stress test already showed warning signs for more than 500 colleges and universities

More than 500 colleges and universities nationwide showed warning signs in a stress test that was conducted before the pandemic according to a new series of reports by the Hechinger Report and NBC News. Declining enrollment and decreased state government support had left dozens of universities under financial stress. With the added pressures of the coronavirus pandemic, “the fabric of American higher education as become even more strained,” the report says.

The Hechinger Report created a financial fitness tracker examining key metrics including enrollment, tuition revenue, public funding and endowment health among 2,662 schools that were included in the analysis. In addition to the more than 500 schools that showed warning signs in two or more metrics, the analysis found an uneven distribution of problems with Ohio and Illinois combined having more than 10 percent of all the institutions potentially facing trouble.

Other findings show that nearly 30 percent of all four-year schools brought in less tuition revenue per student in 2017-18 than in 2009-10; about 700 public campuses received less in state and local appropriations over that same time period; and, about 190 private four-year institutions saw the size of their endowments fall relative to their costs.

More information is available at The Hechinger Report.