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Education Dive
Enrollment still down with three-quarters of colleges reporting
Hallie Busta
Nov. 12, 2020
Dive Brief:
Undergraduate enrollment decreases deepened slightly as more schools
shared their numbers with the National Student Clearinghouse Research
Center, according to data released Thursday.
Colleges reported 4.4% fewer undergraduates than a year ago as of Oct.
22, compared to a 4% lag as of late September. Graduate enrollment was
up 2.9% in October, compared to 2.7% in September.
The latest report accounts for 76% of institutions the Clearinghouse
covers, or 13.6 million students. A final count will be available
mid-December.
Dive Insight:
The fall enrollment picture is filling in as more colleges share data
with the Clearinghouse. And while, overall, higher education enrollment
is still down by about 3% from last fall, the latest release shows a
few changes in how those losses are materializing.
The steepest declines continue to be among community colleges and
first-year students, though their pace has eased as more colleges
report numbers.
At for-profit colleges, earlier data indicated enrollment was up, but
the latest numbers show it dropping. This is in part because for-profit
colleges tend to have more flexible start dates than other institutions
and so some that already reported are revising their numbers, Doug
Shapiro, the center's executive director, said on a call with reporters
Wednesday.
And graduate enrollment at four-year, private nonprofits grew slightly after appearing flat last month.
International students also continue to register declines, with a 15%
decrease among undergraduates and a nearly 8% drop among graduate
students. They were the only student group to experience declines in
graduate enrollment.
Fall enrollment trends have been closely watched after reports early in
the pandemic suggested colleges could see their student counts drop by
as much as 20% year-over-year. While that hasn't occurred for most
institutions — and some have even seen gains — where losses are
reported is insightful.
For instance, while community college enrollment fell 9.5%
year-over-year, enrollment at primarily online institutions rose 6%.
Further, while undergraduate enrollment is decreasing across all age
groups, it is growing at online-focused schools, both for
traditional-age and adult learners.
This trend, particularly among adult learners, suggets schools that are
already suited for online instruction "are in a better position to
capture some of this disruption" than are community colleges, Shapiro
said. Some observers expected community college enrollment to increase
as a result of the pandemic-induced recession, though Shapiro is not
ruling it out. Past Clearinghouse data shows it took a few years for
significant gains from the last recession to appear.
The Clearinghouse defines primarily online schools as those with more
than 90% of students exclusively in distance courses pre-pandemic. The
latest report includes 26 such schools.
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