The higher ed bubble comes to another school. Carl Straumsheim of Inside Higher Ed reports.

War on Multiple Fronts

The University of Maryland University College is used to serving members of the military. Now, the university is fighting a war for survival on multiple fronts.

The university’s dilemma: It needs to grow its enrollment by 5 to 7 percent a year to avoid tuition hikes. Yet for the past two fiscal years, fewer students have enrolled at the university, whose worldwide headcount has sunk to 84,801 — its lowest since 2006.

To reverse this trend, UMUC, once a pioneering flagship institution for adult and distance learners, can no longer be an institution that primarily attracts Maryland residents and members of the military. But administrators and faculty members are wondering how to expand without straying too far from the university’s mission, which states the institution “shall … [p]rovide the citizens of Maryland with affordable, open access to higher education.”

Javier Miyares, president of the university, this year assembled a group of entrepreneurs and members of the Board of Visitors to recommend a new business model for the institution. The team, known as the Ideation Group, this summer delivered a bleak report about the future of the university.

The university’s enrollment has “risen with the tide,” according to a summary of that report, but the tide is now receding. The university is being squeezed by competitors in the U.S. and overseas, and the federal government’s actions — and sometimes inaction — have made going to college a confusing and complicated process for many of its students.

As a result, the report concludes, “UMUC is no longer well-positioned for long term sustainability in this new environment.”