University of the Arts Announces Sudden Closure

Inside Higher Ed

Doug Lederman

June 2, 2024

The University of the Arts, a private nonprofit institution in Philadelphia, announced late Friday that it would close on June 7.

The institution’s announcement came hours after the Middle States Commission on Higher Education withdrew its accreditation, saying UArts had “failed to inform the commission of closure in a timely manner or to properly plan for closure with prior approval through substantive change.”

“[T]he commission has determined that an immediate adverse action is necessary because the institution has not complied with the commission’s procedures, requests for written reports, teach-out plan, or other information,” Middle States said in its May 31 letter to President Kerry Walk. Accreditors have increasingly insisted that institutions facing significant financial turmoil keep their overseers informed and prepare plans for students to transfer to other institutions, among other things.

For their part, University of the Arts officials had relatively little to say.

“We know that the news of UArts’ closure comes as a shock,” Walk and the university’s board chair, Judson Aaron, said a letter to the campus Friday. “Like you, we are struggling to make sense of the present moment. But like many institutions of higher learning, UArts has been in a fragile financial state, with many years of declining enrollments, declining revenues, and increasing expenses.”

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