A looming 'demographic cliff': Fewer college students and ultimately fewer graduates -- NPR
Another data point illustrating how population decline will affect universities:
This was the unceremonious end of Iowa Wesleyan University, a 181-year-old institution that closed in 2023 after financial losses due in part to discounts it gave out as it struggled to attract a shrinking pool of students.
When a college closes, "all the things that are mementos of the best four years of a lot of people's lives are sold to the highest bidders," says Doug Moore, founding partner of a firm that has helped handle the logistics of shutting down four colleges in the last few years, including Iowa Wesleyan.
The outlook, Moore and other experts say, is that there will likely be many more such scenes in the years ahead. That's because the current class of high school seniors scheduled to graduate this spring will be the last before an expected long decline begins in the number of 18-year-olds — the traditional age of students when they enter college.