Another Painful Moment in the Lopsided Decline of American Higher Education

The announced closure of Hampshire College at the end of 2026 marks another painful chapter in the lopsided decline of American higher education. Hampshire has endured previous near-death moments, often sustained by the loyalty of its graduates. But this time, the effort has run its course.

Its death is a sad event in itself, but also because it is part of the dismantling of a vital sector of American higher education. Hampshire is not a cornerstone of that sector, but it does represent the spirit of innovative and personalized undergraduate education. One consequence of its closure is that future start-up colleges will have a harder time attracting capital, faculty, and students. Hampshire’s valiant but unsuccessful effort to pull through will make experimental colleges seem like a riskier proposition.

The proximate causes of Hampshire’s closing are not especially mysterious; they are much the same as those that have brought down many other campuses. As Inside Higher Ed reports, the college faced declining enrollment, rising costs, fiscal instability, and debt it could not refinance. (Unmanageable debt is a central crisis across higher education. Jared Gould noted that the University of Chicago now devotes nearly all undergraduate tuition revenue to servicing its borrowing). Some will point to the expiration of pandemic stimulus funds or to federal scrutiny of low-performing programs. The former likely prolonged the college’s life by fostering the illusion that it could outlast what were, in reality, insurmountable obstacles. The latter does not appear to have played any meaningful role, as those policies have not yet taken effect.

Hampshire, of course, is part of a long and growing list of closures. The long-anticipated enrollment cliff is now arriving, so second-tier public campuses and small private liberal arts colleges are becoming unsustainable.