The school was founded in 1985 with the merger of the Philadelphia University of the Arts and the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts.
The news comes amid a wave of similar closures across the country, due not only to pressures on higher education in general but also the particular vulnerabilities of arts institutions. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, America’s first art school and museum, founded in Philadelphia in 1805, will disband at the end of the 2024-25 school year. (Some of the academy’s students were expected to be taken on by the University of the Arts.) Last April, the 150-year-old San Francisco Art Institute filed for bankruptcy, and that fall, the for-profit college system, the Art Institutes, announced the closure of eight campuses across the country.
Some of the schools that went bankrupt overspent on building projects, while others acquired real estate at top prices only to see values plummet. Many have faced difficulties due to disruptions to the FAFSA process. The pandemic has hit art schools especially hard because students prefer to learn those subjects in person, Deborah O’Barril, president of the Association of Independent Art and Design Colleges, of which the school is a member, said in an interview.
Tuition for the 2023-2024 school year is $54,010, according to a spokesperson, but the university says the average tuition is lower because all students receive some form of institutional aid.
Plus, art schools typically can’t offer significant financial aid without a big endowment — the school’s endowment was about $60 million, according to university officials. Yale University’s total assets will be $40.7 billion in 2023, while the top-ranked California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) will have total assets of $213.8 million as of 2022.
The University of the Arts’ financial difficulties were well known, and there had been a relatively rapid succession of presidents with contrasting visions, some of whom had suffered repeated blows, as well as rapid turnover at the dean level and in admissions and progression offices.
