Hodges University in Florida to Close by August of 2024
“the college had expected to enroll 76 new degree-seeking students this fall, but no longer will”
Lower enrollment combined with the pandemic has put the school in a no-win situation. We have seen this same story over and over again.
Inside Higher Ed reports:
Another Small College, Hodges University, Will Close
Hodges University, a small private nonprofit college in Florida, announced late Friday that it would stop enrolling degree-seeking students and close entirely by next August.
In a news release and a message to students on its homepage, Hodges officials said that “due to financial challenges and declining enrollment numbers, we can no longer provide the quality educational programs that we have provided over the past 33 years.”
Consultants and others who work with colleges on their finances have been predicting that numerous small colleges may announce closures late this summer and early in the fall as fall 2023 enrollment data come in.
The combination of suppressed enrollments, the expiration of federal recovery dollars that buttressed institutional budgets during the pandemic and higher costs due to inflation may be too much for institutions on the edge, they’ve warned.
Hodges’s president, Charlene Wendel, who has been in the role only since last month, told the Fort Myers News-Press/Naples Daily News that the college had expected to enroll 76 new degree-seeking students this fall, but no longer will.
The institution will continue to enroll students in short-term programs such as English as a second language, and emergency medical technician training, but will otherwise focus on graduating “as many of our students as we can before closing,” she told the newspaper. Hodges will work with other institutions to help students transfer.
Wendel and other officials at Hodges did not respond to Inside Higher Ed’s requests for comment.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
