Closed for Business, Open for Critique: For-Profit Closures in Higher Education

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 43
  In Roundtable Session: The Politics of Closure: Implications of and Lessons From Failed Institutions of Higher Education

Abstract

In this paper the author offers the perspective of for-profit educational closures in the national, international, and global context. Decreases in enrollment and recruitment have necessarily affected the bottom line in the for-profit sector. For-profits have had to scale back and cope with new rules and regulations and dealing with the changes have led to challenges for the institutions. This paper makes an important contribution to the symposium to consider what happens after the closure and not just the events that led to the closure. Specifically, what happens to key stakeholders (e.g. students) after an institution shuts its doors for good? The reverberating effects and consequences of institutional closures offer potential for insight for higher education governance and policy in the future.

Author

• Kevin Kinser, Pennsylvania State University