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Dive Brief:
- Providence Christian College will close at the end of the 2025-26 academic year, with officials citing enrollment troubles, rising costs, accreditation standards and the loss of federal funds.
- “After exhausting a number of different options to decrease operational expenses, recruit additional students, and even change the campus location, the board felt that this was the only option remaining,” Providence Christian President Steven Kortenhoeven said in the announcement this week.
- Providence Christian joins several other religious nonprofit colleges that have announced closures in the past couple of years, with institutions frequently reporting no viable path forward following years of mounting financial distress.
Dive Insight:
Providence Christian has been grappling with several steep hurdles, including accreditation woes, leadership turnover and an operational model that hinged on donor support.
The liberal arts college is a relatively young institution. It was founded in 2002 and opened its doors three years later, enrolling roughly two dozen students and offering a selection of 13 bachelor’s degrees.
However, it didn’t receive accreditation until 2013. That year, the college had 66 students in the fall, federal data shows. Enrollment nearly tripled to 171 students in 2018, and it has fluctuated since then. A similar number of students, 168, attended the college in fall 2024, the most recent year for which federal data is available.
During that time, the college underwent several financial and operational changes, including a revamp of its curriculum. Today, Providence Christian offers just one degree: a bachelor’s in liberal arts. Students can select a concentration from a handful of areas, ranging from theology to business.
Leadership tumult has contributed to its woes. Providence Christian hired its fourth president, Kortenhoeven, in 2024, but several vice presidents had served as the interim president of the college in the four years before his appointment.
In 2025, the WASC Senior College and University Commission placed Providence Christian on probation.
The accreditor found the college wasn’t complying with standards requiring the institution to have a multi-year financial plan and a plan for increasing enrollment, as well as standards requiring processes for data collection and strategic planning.
The decision came after the accreditation officials visited the college in 2024 and found a lack of formal procedures and planning. They suggested those issues likely stemmed in part from the long stretch without permanent leadership.
“In sum, budget plans, enrollment plans, succession plans, and strategic plans are not in place, and, while the institution is reliant on donations, a capital campaign report was not available to the team,” officials wrote in their summary.
They also pointed out that the college was relying on donations for a significant portion of its operating budget — nearly 40% in fiscal year 2025 — but that this wasn’t a reliable source of revenue.
Providence Christian ended fiscal 2024 with $5.7 million in liabilities, including a loan from the Small Business Administration and a $150,000 outstanding balance on a line of credit. The college’s liabilities exceeded its $5.3 million in assets that year.
In meetings, Providence Christian officials mentioned that they aimed to increase enrollment to 300 students — a level they said would curb their reliance on donations — but the accreditation report said they didn’t have a clear plan to reach this target.
The accreditation officials also flagged issues with Providence Christian’s plans to open a new campus in Southern California on donated land, a move the institution estimated would initially cost $2.5 million.
Yet college officials weren’t able to provide data “to substantiate the expense of construction of a new campus,” nor could they provide data on their ability to recruit and enroll students in that location, support its operations or raise enough capital for its construction.
In an FAQ on the closure, Providence Christian said the board considered alternatives to shuttering, such as moving the campus and striking strategic partnerships, but determined they wouldn’t be sufficient to put the college on a “path toward long-term sustainability.”
Providence Christian also pointed to a recent loss of federal funds, though leaders didn’t specify the source. However, in 2023, the college had secured a five-year $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education through its designation as a Hispanic-serving institution.
Earlier this year, the Education Department canceled $350 million in grants for HSIs and other minority-serving institutions. Kortenhoeven didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The college has scheduled commencement for graduating students on May 16. Students who can’t finish their degrees this semester can enroll in Providence Christian’s teach-out partners: Biola University, Concordia University and The Master’s University.
