In this episode, Jeff Selingo and Michael Horn interview Doug Moore, a specialist who helps institutions navigate the financial, operational, and emotional process of closing college campuses. Moore explains why colleges close, what warning signs leaders often miss, why mergers so often fail, and what’s really lost when a campus disappears. He also warns that demographic decline and financial pressure are driving a wave of closures across higher education.
For Moore, the scale of the challenge is stark: “I think we’re gonna see 400 schools close completely in the next seven to ten years. No mergers, meaning an abandoned campus. And that is a big number.”