A perfect storm is shrinking the US college applicant pool. Between slowing population growth, lingering post-pandemic learning disruptions and artificial intelligence shaking up the entry-level job market, higher education is facing an unprecedented wave of closures and mergers.
Since 2020, around 90 non-profit colleges and universities have either closed or merged, with more expected to follow.
We here at 9fin already track corporate distressed situations, but we wanted to know: what does a full-blown financial crisis look like on a university campus?
Enter 9fin’s first class of “finterns.” Over the summer, they dug into what happens when colleges face severe balance sheet pressure and have to tap restructuring advisors for a way forward:
- Legal analyst intern Aidan Foley compares university M&A to corporate M&A, and why schools can’t just sell off endowment assets to cover shortfalls
- Credit analyst intern Krish Saraff crunches the numbers on some struggling colleges in our Distressed Pitch List, University Edition
- Reporting intern Muyang Cao breaks down the case of the College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York, and how its debt-fueled growth strategy forced a 103-year-old college to close
We’d love to hear from you about this project. Send questions, comments or feedback to us with the subject header “Distressed U”!
