According to early data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, college and university enrollments continue to be on the decline for most institutions, reports Inside Higher Ed.
Undergraduate enrollment overall fell by 3.2 percent this fall, similar to last fall’s 3.4 percent decline, Inside Higher Ed reported. Since 2019, undergraduate enrollment has declined by 6.5 percent.
“A lot of those freshmen who didn’t show up last year—they haven’t come back yet,” Doug Shapiro, vice president of research and executive director of the research center, told Inside Higher Ed. “The longer students are away from school, the harder and harder it becomes for them to come back. It may well be that a majority of them might not ever make it back, and that’s very much a concern.”
Highly selective private, nonprofit institutions saw an 11.7 percent increase in freshman enrollments this fall, compared to an 8.7 percent decline last fall, reported Inside Higher Ed. Highly selective public institutions saw a freshmen enrollment increase of 1.2 percent this fall, compared with a 5.6 percent decline last fall.
Public two-year institutions saw a 5.6 percent decline in enrollments this fall, compared with a 9 percent drop last fall, the Clearinghouse research showed. Many community college leaders are concerned about enrollments, Inside Higher Ed reported. Paul Jarrell, provost and executive vice president of Lane Community College in Oregon, for example, told Inside Higher Ed, “It will take us several years to build back enrollments we lost in the last two years.” The college saw a 20 percent enrollment decrease this fall after a 14 percent decline last year.
The Clearinghouse data found that the largest undergraduate enrollment declines this fall were among black students and white students, Inside Higher Ed reported; their numbers dropped 5.1 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively. Latinx undergraduate enrollment dropped by 2.4 percent this fall compared with 2.8 percent last fall. Asian undergraduate enrollment dropped 2.2 percent this fall compared with 3.5 percent last year. Native American undergraduates declined by 4.4. percent this semester compared with 8.8 percent last fall, reported Inside Higher Ed.
Related Links
Inside Higher Ed
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/10/25/community-college-enrollments-worry-campus-leaders
Inside Higher Ed
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/10/26/college-enrollments-continue-drop-fall
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