Higher education experts have a message for college leaders contemplating a merger: Don’t wait. By the time a college is in deep financial distress and facing potential closure, the window for an optimal merger typically has closed long ago. Institutions in trouble often wait until “the absolute last minute and then think, ‘Now it’s a good idea to find a merger partner’ — which nobody will touch,” Ricardo Azziz, founder and director of the Center for Higher Education Mergers and Acquisitions, said at the Higher Learning Commission’s annual conference last week.
