Resources

Strategic Mergers in Higher Education

Published in late 2019, Strategic Mergers in Higher Education argues that college and university mergers are a legitimate and proactive strategic option to help ensure success, maximize quality and service, and yield the best return for faculty and students.

The College Stress Test: Tracking Institutional Futures Across a Crowded Market

Robert Zemsky, Susan Shaman, and Susan Campbell Baldridge provide an insightful analysis of the market stresses that threaten the viability of some of America’s colleges and universities while delivering a powerful predictive tool to measure an institution’s risk of closure.

Consolidating Colleges and Merging Universities: New Strategies for Higher Education Leaders

In Consolidating Colleges and Merging Universities, James Martin and James E. Samels bring together higher education leaders to talk about something that few want to discuss: how institutions might cooperate with their competitors to survive in this economic climate.

Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education

The decisions we make in the next five years are critical in determining whether colleges thrive or flounder.

Cautionary Tales: Strategy Lessons from Struggling Colleges

Scarcely a week goes by without a headline about the unsustainability of higher education as we know it, under threat from new models, for-profits, or online education. Most threatened are small liberal arts colleges – with commentators predicting the demise of colleges with fewer than 1,000, or even 1,500 students. Are these trends inevitable, or can they be overcome?

The Growing Role of Mergers in Higher Ed: An Inside Higher Ed Special Report

Colleges and universities find themselves facing an uncertain future as student popu- lations shift, financial pressures mount and skepticism rises about the value of a higher education. In the coming years, presidents and boards of trustees may very well find themselves fighting for the survival of their institutions — if they aren’t already.

Strength in Numbers: Why Collaboration is Key to the Future of Higher Education

No matter the size or health of a higher learning institution, certain strategies can make collaborations and partnerships more effective.

Mergers in Higher Education: A Proactive Strategy to a Better Future?

Higher education worldwide is facing unprecedented challenges, driven by rapid growth in mobility, communication, technology, and demands for skills and credentials — all fostering disruption of the higher education marketplace.

Attorney General Observations on Mount Ida College Closure

A letter from the Massachusetts Attorney General to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education regarding the closure of Mount Ida College.

Letter to the Oberlin Community from the Trustees

A letter from the Oberlin College Board of Trustees to the Oberlin community regarding budget deficits.

Lesson Plan: An Agenda for Change in Higher Education

American higher education faces some serious problems ― but they are not the ones most people think. In this brief and accessible book, two leading experts show that many so-called crises ― from the idea that typical students are drowning in debt to the belief that tuition increases are being driven by administrative bloat―are exaggerated or simply false.

The Agile College: How Institutions Successfully Navigate Demographic Changes

In this essential follow-up to Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education, Nathan D. Grawe explores how proactive institutions are preparing for the resulting challenges that lie ahead. While it isn’t possible to reverse the demographic tide, most institutions, he argues persuasively, can mitigate the effects