Keeping pace of the developing pathway scene among the private providers in the US requires constant attention. Study Group has taken action within its US portfolio and no longer recruits for four brands featured on the company’s website a few months ago. After this year’s closure of CEG’s US centers and EC Higher Education’s withdrawal from the market it’s further evidence of the pressure on international student recruitment.
The closed Study Group pathways are Roosevelt, Widener and Merrimack while West Virginia was a direct recruitment option. The Merrimack relationship extended back over a decade, Widener and Roosevelt were opened in 2012/13. West Virginia came online in January 2018 with recruitment commencing in fall 2018.
These changes leave Study Group with four regionally-ranked and seven nationally-ranked university partners according to USNWR 2020 listings. Among the nationally-ranked, two were taken over from EC while only three sit above 200: Baylor (79), Vermont (121) and DePaul (125). Three of the four remaining regionally ranked universities, Oglethorpe, Western Washington and Lynn were signed in 2017, so there may be contractual impediments to early action.
US News Ranking 2020 of Study Group US Partnerships (closed institution in red)
The Study Group closures mean that, as far as I can track from public information, the company has launched 14 university partnerships in the US of which five have now been closed in the past two years. Between CEG and Study Group more than 10% of US private-pathway provider centers have closed in the past two years. These tended to be smaller operations in terms of student numbers, but it reflects the stress that the sector is under.
As global competition grows, the potential for private pathway providers to recruit successfully to less prestigious and/or lower ranked institutions seems increasingly questionable and even bigger names have seen enrolments declining. It is difficult to see that the increasing view of Admissions Directors from Masters/Baccalaureate institutions that pathways ‘will become more important’ is well founded. Neither is it obvious that the billion dollar private equity fuelled dash to build pathway capacity in the US is going to pay off in the foreseeable future.
With UK international recruitment prospects resurgent under a new Post-Study Work regime, the growing quality of emerging options around the world and the continuing assertiveness of Canada, Australia and Germany, it’s probably time for a rethink.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay