College Insurrection recently reported on the decision of Wilson College to go co-ed. Now Pine Manor College in Massachusetts is following suit.

Scott Jaschik of Inside Higher Ed reports.

Another Former Women’s College

Pine Manor College — which has been struggling to maintain enrollments — announced Wednesday that it will admit male students to all programs. While men have already been admitted to a number of programs, the residential bachelor’s program has until now been for women only.

The decision by Pine Manor, in Massachusetts, comes six months after Wilson College, in Pennsylvania, announced a similar move. Indeed a report prepared for the Pine Manor board cited analysis done on the issue at Wilson. The most competitive women’s colleges (the former Seven Sisters institutions that remained single-sex and a number of others, generally institutions with meaningful endowments), continue to do well in recruiting students, and show no interest in admitting men.

But among less competitive colleges, the pace of change appears to be increasing. Last year, when Georgian Court University announced plans to admit men, officials there noted that about 10 women’s colleges in the previous 10 years had done so, leaving the total number of women’s colleges at around 50. Now, a year later, two more have joined the trend.

A report prepared by a Pine Manor committee that studied the issue noted the reasons cited by other colleges, such as the very small percentage of female high school seniors who seek out or will even consider attending women’s colleges.