Concerns are increasing about the number of university and college systems in financial distress or drifting toward it—and many may be beyond repair without outside help, according to the latest analysis by education tech company Ellucian. Three familiar boogeymen—shrinking pools of students, rising operating costs and workforce disruptions—are worsening the financial outlook for the nation’s higher education networks. The organizations studied in this report oversee nearly 1,200 institutions serving 15 million students. The “condition of these systems is the condition of the sector,” writes Dan Greenstein, report author and former chancellor of Pennsylvania’s state higher education system. Thirty-nine out of 91 college and university systems are experiencing some form of distress, and more than a third face “acute risk” as enrollment declines and financial challenges worsen, the report found.