On Oct. 20, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center released a report which revealed that undergraduate enrollment has dropped 1.1% since last fall.
While the dip was smaller than the previous year’s decline of 3.1%, analysts still find the trend worrisome.
Doug Shapiro, the research center’s executive director, thinks the data suggests that enrollment declines brought on by the pandemic have not yet been reversed.
According to Shapiro, many 2020 and 2021 high school graduates who would have gone to college didn’t because of COVID, and maybe never will.
For-profit schools had the sharpest decline in enrollment this fall, down 2.5%. Public four-year schools and private nonprofit institutions saw declines of 1.6% and 0.9%, respectively. Community college enrollment dropped 0.4%. Overall, the report found that graduate enrollment was also down by 1%
