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Hard times for America's biggest universities
In tough times the jobless and underemployed may be tempted to flock back to school to fill the void and start over, but public universities are struggling with budget cuts that have eroded service and forced some schools to curb enrollment.
State universities make up all 10 members of our list of largest schools by undergraduate enrollment and three of the top 10 in graduate enrollment. State funding as a percentage of university operating funding has fallen to 30% from 50% in the last two decades, according to Moody's Investors Service. States funneled some $90 billion into public universities in 2009 but support is likely to be stagnant or cut until states can get a hold on their own fiscal challenges, Moody's said in a report last month.
Universities face falling off a funding "cliff" in 2012, when federal stimulus funds taper off. The hardest-hit states, where stimulus funds made up 4% or more of state support for public universities, will be Arizona--home to the nations largest school by undergraduate enrollment, Arizona State University--Colorado, Massachusetts, Nevada and California, Moody's says, citing data from Illinois State University's Center for the Study of Education Policy.