American higher education enrollments declined, again: new NSCRC data

(second of two posts; here’s the first one)

The enrollment decline in American colleges and universities continued this fall semester, according to just-released data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. This is very important for higher education in this nation.

The big picture: student numbers declined in nearly every metric, continuing a nearly decade-long fall. Only elite universities and graduate programs enjoyed actual growth. Overall, undergraduate numbers dropped by 3.2%. Graduate enrollment rose again, by 2.1%, albeit within a much smaller group than undergrads. To sum up, the Center’s headline for this report is “Undergraduate Enrollment Still Falling.”

Let’s dive into the data by category.

Demographics: by gender, male and female enrollment both declined at about equal rates in fall 2021, compared to last year. By race, the largest declines were among white, black, and native American populations, more so than Asian and Hispanic groups. By age, nearly all demographics declined, especially people 25–29 years old, except for the under 17 population.

International students dropped by 8.2%.

Institutional types: community colleges continued to get hit hard, dropping by 5.6%…