The End of University Inc

Covid-19 Threatens to End University as We Know It

Universities have long been critical components of public life and deeply formative institutions in the lives of many. Unlike in most nations, US universities also play a very active role in economic activity nationally thanks to their high tuition fees, extensive real estate holdings and the base of consumers and renters they bring to many small towns and cities. According to the Amercian Council on Education there are nearly 4,000 degree granting, two-year and four-year, public and private colleges and universities in the United States. Annually these institutions educate roughly 20 million people and generate revenues of $650 billion and employ an incredible 4 million people across campuses nationwide. Universities have important economic impacts in the regions they inhabit. For example, in 2018, the University of Notre Dame had a regional economic impact of $2.46 billion and supported 16,700 jobs.

However, universities in the United States have been facing growing financial pressure in recent years as the economic model that has sustained them for decades has increasingly fallen away. As state funding has dried up and enrollment for many of the lower-ranked universities have declined, many universities find themselves facing a precarious future. The Covid-19 pandemic however has created the perfect storm that may put an end to University Inc in the United States as we know it.