OHIO — As people struggle to deal with inflation and its impact on their wallet, rising college tuition prices are the latest thing to get added to the mix.
What You Need To Know
- Colleges are going program by program to determine which ones they need to keep
- Some schools who had a hard time during the pandemic will have a hard time in the coming years
- Schools will have to be clear about who they are, what their niche is, and who they want in their classrooms while recruiting
Matt Dearden, vice president of Enrollment Services at Cedarville University, explained that only time will tell if things are back to business as usual, now that inflation is an issue, tuition is increasing and tuition freezes which once provided pandemic relief are out in many places.
“My impression of what’s happening is colleges are now, kind of, drawing a line in the sand and they’re saying, yes, you know, the pandemic we’re on the way out of that,” Dearden said. “And so now we do really want you to come and join us.”
Dearden said several schools who adjusted their budgets and staff to get by through the pandemic are making more adjustments because of inflation now.
“And so what they’re actually doing in many cases, they’re going program by program, and they’re saying, Does this program make us money?” he said. “And if not, they’re having to make hard choices about cutting programs, cutting different benefits, and really a key one is cutting supporting services for students… things like academic enrichment services.”
Ultimately, Dearden believes some schools who had a hard time during the pandemic will have a hard time in the coming years.
In looking at how colleges and universities can rebound, he explained that they’ll have to be really clear about who they are, what their niche is, and who they want in their classrooms while recruiting accordingly.
“So schools that are clear about their mission are going to be the ones that are going to be the most effective going forward after the pandemic,” Dearden said.
