8 Colleges Closing In 2026: Full List Of Closures

The College Investor 

Robert Farrington
April 27, 2026

Key Points

  • At least eight U.S. nonprofit colleges have announced they will cease operations in 2026.
  • Six notable mergers or acquisitions are in active transition right now as well, with the trend appearing to accelerate.
  • Huron Consulting projects nearly a quarter of the country’s roughly 1,700 private nonprofit four-year institutions could close or merge within the next decade.
Anna Maria College’s closure announcement last week brought the 2026 U.S. nonprofit college shutdown count to eight. The 80-year-old institution in Paxton, Massachusetts said its Board of Trustees could no longer project the financial resources to sustain academic operations past the spring 2026 semester. This decision came less than two weeks after the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education formally flagged the college as a closure risk.

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