SAN FRANCISCO — The Bay Area campuses of the Art Institute of California and Argosy University will close at the end of the year, according to the organization that owns them, Dream Center Education Holdings, LLC.

“After a complete and thorough examination of the three education systems in the DCEH network to ensure they are meeting the needs of today’s learners, we did not see demand growth for courses at these campuses,” Anne Dean, a spokeswoman for Dream Center Education Holdings, said in an email Tuesday. “We made the decision to cease enrollments for a number of schools within The Art Institutes, Argosy University and South University systems.”

The Art Institute’s San Francisco campus is no longer accepting applicants, according to its website, which redirects potential students to other locations in Los Angeles, San Diego or its online division. Argosy University posted a similar message on its website about its Alameda campus.

The Art Institute of California-San Francisco offers classes in visual and interior design, marketing, film, gaming, cooking, animation and fashion. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the San Francisco division has 630 students enrolled. The school’s website puts tuition costs at about $518 per credit hour and estimates the cost of a full bachelor’s program north of $96,000 for most programs.

At Argosy University, about 304 students are enrolled, according to estimates from the National Center for Education Statistics. That school offers associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs in psychology, criminal justice, management and education, among other subjects. Fees at Argosy range from $445 per credit hour to more than $1,000 per credit hour, according to its website.

In addition to the Bay Area campuses, Dream Center Education Holdings will close Art Institutes campuses in San Bernardino, Santa Ana and Sacramento, as well as schools in Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Illinois, Colorado, Florida, Tennessee, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Oregon. Argosy will close a campus in San Diego and Ontario in California, as well as campuses in Texas, Colorado, Tennessee, Utah, Florida and Illinois. The organization also runs South University and will close campuses in Michigan, North Carolina and Ohio.

“This decision was made for a number of reasons, including a shift in the demand for online programs in higher education and in student populations at the campuses, which have resulted in declining, unsustainable enrollment levels for campus-based programs in these markets,” Dean said.

According to a report of layoffs on the website of the California Employment Development Department, the closures will result in the layoff of 138 employees at the San Francisco campus and 78 in Alameda.

Dream Center Education Holdings acquired many of the Art Institutes and Argosy University schools late last year, along with branches of South University and Western State College of Law. The purchase of the schools from their former parent company, Education Management Corporation, transitioned the schools from for-profit to non-profit institutions, according to a 2017 news release from the Art Institute. In 2015, the Education Management Corporation reached a $95.5-million settlement with the federal government over claims that it had misled prospective students, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

In late June, Education Management Corporation filed for bankruptcy, according to the Project on Predatory Student Lending, a project from the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School that works to protect student borrowers mostly from for-profit schools that it calls “predatory.” Dream Center Education Holdings said on its website that there is no connection between that bankruptcy and the closures.

The Project on Predatory Student Lending advised in a note on its website that students who have not completed their degrees and who choose not to accept either of these options may qualify for a closed school discharge of their federal student loans.

Dean, of Dream Center Education Holdings, said in her email that the organization will “work with each student to prepare an instructional completion plan, outlining all credits remaining in the program, the sequence in which these courses should be taken, and the anticipated graduation date.”

“We will then determine with the student, based on that plan, what the best option is for them to complete their education,” she said.

For students who can graduate before the end of December 2018, the school will cut their remaining tuition in half. Students who transition to an online program or a different campus will also get a 50 percent tuition reduction for the remainder of their program of study, Dean said, and those who transfer to a “partner institution” that is not part of Dream Center Education Holdings’ schools will receive a $5,000 tuition grant toward their studies there.

When asked what those partner institutions are, Dean said “we are working to forge partner agreements with local institutions now.”