Undergraduate and Graduate College Enrollment is Falling
“I am surprised that it seems to be getting worse.”
More people are looking at the cost of college and deciding it’s not worth it.
Newsmax reports:
College Enrollment Continues to Fall
Declining college enrollment has continued, with experts suggesting that people are questioning the value of a postsecondary education.
Total college enrollment — both undergraduate and graduate — fell this spring to 16.2 million students, marking a one-year decline of 4.1%, or 685,000 students, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC) announced on Thursday.
That followed a 3.5% drop last spring, meaning postsecondary institutions have lost nearly 1.3 million students since spring 2020.
Most of this spring’s decline was accounted for by undergraduate enrollment, which dropped 4.7%, or more than 662,000 students, compared to spring 2021.
The total number of undergraduates now is 9.4%, or nearly 1.4 million students smaller than before the pandemic.
“I thought we would start to see some of the declines begin to shrink a bit this term,” NSCRC Executive Director Dr. Doug Shapiro said during a conference call with reporters, The New York Times reported.
“I am surprised that it seems to be getting worse.”
Even before COVID-19, though, college enrollment had been dropping nationally.
Enrollment at public institutions this spring was down 5% — losing 604,000 students from a year ago — and community colleges (351,000) accounted for more than half of these losses.
Community colleges have lost more than 827,000 students since the start of the pandemic.
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Comments
I’m surprised they haven’t noticed a decline in the number of people who want to become college faculty, especially in STEM areas. If I were currently a graduate student, I would be put off by the politicization of colleges, and I would go into industry.
For people in areas with little practical application (sociology, gender studies, Afro, etc), they can either teach and replicate themselves, or they can march toward the Golden Arches.
They certainly wouldn’t march to the White Castle! Especially studies majors.
Regretting that I didn’t go into industry when I had the chance. It’s somewhat a fork in the road in my field because getting industry experience just isn’t there when you have a Ph D and only academic experience.
The ROI is currently garbage, especially for the -studies majors.
It would seem that colleges are pricing themselves out if the market in two ways, one obvious way being the cost of attending. The second way comprises the dumbing down of course work, the clearly nutty stifling of free speech and thought, and finalky the easily destroyed reputation of those who refuse to follow the party line.