09/01/2026
"The future of the sector looks increasingly bleak: College attendance reached record highs this year, but the decline in birthrate since the 2008 recession is starting to hit the application pool and forcing schools to compete for students. The 'demographic cliff,' a 13 percent decline in high school graduates by 2041, has finally begun, just as the Trump administration transforms both federal research funding and student loans, two long-reliable streams of revenue for universities."
Higher education has long felt like the most stable sector of the Massachusetts economy. Not anymore.