Closure Concerns Abound
If the recent reports about AU’s financial situation have you worried, perhaps you can at least take solace in knowing that you’re not alone. In the 2015 Survey of College and University Business Officers, almost one in five chief business officers of colleges and universities are worried that their institutions are at risk of shutting down in the foreseeable future.
While 64 percent agree that their financial model is sustainable over the next five years, that confidence drops to only 42 percent if you look over the next ten years. Most colleges and universities are looking toward increasing enrollment as a means of dealing with their funding challenges, but according to Inside Higher Ed, this is a strategy that “can only go so far” due to being “limited in how much capacity we have on our campuses.” Of course, this means that for AU, this strategy might still be viable.
