Feds Complicate College Mergers, With Possible Unintended Consequences

The latest academic year saw the start of what industry experts expect to be an intensified wave of college closures or mergers as institutions contend with declining enrollment and financial pressures. But a series of policy changes by the Biden administration could make those transactions—which are often extremely difficult to bring about from a cultural standpoint—even harder in practice. Over the past year, the U.S. Education Department has amended federal rules to give itself more oversight over the “change in ownership” process, and it has subjected mergers to new requirements.