A pair of professors warn that coronavirus could be the final nail in the coffin for many colleges — and that’s a good thing.
With so many colleges predicted to close, coupled with employers and campus administrators putting more of an emphasis on a college education, the “sunny side of all of this is that a stronger system of higher education will emerge, one re-focused on educating students rather than on selling a ‘college experience,’” the professors argue.
Duquesne University Professor Antony Davies and University of Arizona Professor James Harrigan draw on research by NYU marketing Professor Scott Galloway, who concluded that up to 20 percent of colleges could close due to coronavirus.
Galloway made the estimate by calculating the vulnerability of colleges based on several factors.
The school closures and the related drop in revenue for colleges should spur university officials to reorganize and reevaluate their degree offerings, Davies and Harrigan argue in a recent essay for the Foundation for Economic Education.