For-profit design college in Ohio to shutter

“Dive Brief: The Modern College of Design plans to close in June , the institution abruptly announced on Monday. “ We can no longer support the operations due to enrollment challenges,” President Jessica Barry explained in a statement. The Ohio for-profit pivoted to online instruction the same day as the closure announcement. The college said it “was not an easy decision” to close the physical campu s but that it did so to ensure safety. The Modern is currently working on transfer agreements with other institutions and said it will refund tuition, fees and deposits paid by students toward a summer or fall term. Dive Insight: Barry, an alumna of The Modern who bought the college in 2013 , described shuttering The Modern as “t he most responsible path forwar d” given its enrollment challenges. “ Over time, we have worked hard to try to address these challenges by, for example, improving our operations and introducing new programs ,” Barry said. “ Despite these efforts to evolve and grow, we have not achieved the stability needed to be able to continue .” However, federal data shows The Modern’s student body has ticked upwards in recent years. Its fall headcount came to 214 students in 2024, up from 189 in the year prior and 178 in 2022 . However, those increases only served to get the college back to pre-pandemic enrollment levels, when it had 211 students in fall 2019. The Modern's accreditor, the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges, did not publicly raise any red flags about the college before this week's news. The college was founded in 1983 as the School of Advertising Art. In 2018, the institution changed its name and opened a 23,000-square-foot addition to its campus that included a new student lounge and photography studio. The expansion cost $6 million , according to the Dayton Daily News. Until its closure, the college offered a variety of associates degrees in design as well as a bachelor’s degree in design leadership launched in 2018. Sticker price for a two-year associates degree at The Modern ran over $70,000 . The Modern is one of several art and design colleges to shutter in recent years amid broader higher education headwinds. Earlier this year, the California College of the Arts , which offers both fine arts and design degrees, announced it would close at the end of the 2026-27 academic year and turn its campus over to Vanderbilt University. In 2024, the University of the Arts , in Philadelphia, and Delaware College of Art and Design both shuttered amid falling enrollment and rising costs.

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