The University of the Arts has announced its imminent closure, as the institution will be shutting down on Friday, June 7, writes Ryan Mulligan for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

According to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, UArts had fallen out of compliance with the commission’s standards and was having its accreditation withdrawn.

The school’s President Kerry Walk and Chair Judson Aaron called the university’s abrupt closure a “deeply painful outcome” that “comes as a shock.”

“Like you, we are struggling to make sense of the present moment. But like many institutions of higher learning, UArts had been in a fragile financial state, with many years of declining enrollments, declining revenues, and increasing expenses,” they wrote in a letter to the UArts community.

In January, Fitch, a ratings firm, downgraded its outlook for UArts to negative due to $46 million outstanding on a bond issued by the school. 

“We could not overcome the ultimate challenge we faced … we could not cover significant, unanticipated expenses,” said Walk and Aaron.

In the meantime, the school will support its current students through transfer pathways with partners, such as Drexel University, Temple University, and Moore College of Art and Design. 

UArts was founded in 1876.

Read more about the imminent closure of the University of the Arts at the Philadelphia Business Journal. 

_____