Many people believed the pandemic would bring a wave of mergers and acquisitions. That didn’t happen, but guests Sally Amoruso and Mary Ludden, who both know a lot about M&A, say a wave among small regional private institutions could be coming. This episode is made possible with support from Ascendium Education Group, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Course Hero.Listen to the March 2022 Future U episode on college consolidations at https://www.futureupodcast.com/episodes/is-consolidation-coming/Higher Dive is tracking closings, mergers, acquisitions and other consolidation among public and private nonprofit institutions from 2016 to the present: https://www.highereddive.com/news/how-many-colleges-and-universities-have-closed-since-2016/539379/Fitch Ratings anticipates a deteriorating credit environment for U.S. Public Finance Higher Education in 2023 relative to 2022. A new study from researchers at Harvard University and the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that health system mergers only marginally improve the quality of care, but at significantly higher cost.In the late 1990s, several members of Congress made a push for cost controls in higher education. To learn more, listen to Episode 119 of Future U for our interview with Bill Troutt, former chair of the National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education who's also President Emeritus of Rhodes College in Tennessee, and Harvard economist Susan Dynarski.