Rural Students’ Options Shrink as US Colleges Slash Majors: Report

NEW YORK:
Across the United States, rural students are feeling shortchanged and frustrated, as many of the comparatively few universities that serve them are eliminating large numbers of programs and majors, blaming plummeting enrollment and resulting financial crises, local media reported.

“Nationwide, college enrollment has declined by 2 million students, or 10 per cent, in the 10 years ending in 2022, hitting rural schools particularly hard,” report Xinhua news agency, quoting The Washington Post on Tuesday.

“An increasing number of rural private, nonprofit colleges are not only cutting majors but closing altogether.”

For many rural students, there are already few places to go. About 13 million people live in higher education “deserts,” the American Council on Education estimates, mostly in the Midwest and Great Plains, where the nearest university is beyond a reasonable commute away, according to the report.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen private, nonprofit universities and colleges that were in rural areas or served large proportions of rural students have closed since 2020, data show.

Rural-serving institutions are defined by the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges as those located in counties classified as rural and not near a metropolitan area.