Community colleges are the only higher education institutions that are seeing enrollment growth in spring 2023, as enrollment at four-year colleges and universities remains steady with minor fluctuations.
The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC) has been publishing Stay Informed, updates on college enrollment since the pandemic began in 2020. Higher education educational and policy leaders rely on this data to make informed decisions about enrollment trends. Undergraduate enrollment began to stabilize in fall 2022, but it is still below pre-pandemic (2019) levels by approximately 1.11 million students.
Highlights for Spring 2023 include:
- Community college enrollment shows an uptick of 2.1% fueled by strong growth among dual enrollees (age 17 and under) and freshmen. This growth is occurring across all campus settings while undergraduate enrollment is increasing only at suburban campuses of four-year institutions. Dual enrollment increased +2.9% in 2022 and is up +12.8% so far in 2023.
- Enrollment grew only among younger undergraduate students and students ages 18-20. Older students (21 or above) continued a downward trend, extending multi-year losses across all sectors.
- Undergraduate enrollment was steady this spring (+0.22%) with only public four-year institutions experiencing enrollment declines. Total enrollment (graduate and undergraduate) has remained unchanged since spring 2022.
- Enrollment growth continues to be the strongest in certificate programs at both the undergraduate (+5.5%) and graduate (+4.6%) levels. Associate and bachelor’s degree seeking students saw minimal changes (+0.3% and -0.6%, respectively).
- Undergraduate men who were hit hard at the beginning of the pandemic are now seeing enrollment growth (+0.7%), while women’s enrollment continues to decline (-0.9%).
- Latinx students were the only major racial or ethnic group that continued to show increases in enrollment (+0.9%) while enrollment for White students was down -4.9% and -1.6% for Black students.
Results represent 8.5 million spring enrollments in institutions representing 54 percent of the Clearinghouse’s universe of institutions.
The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC) is the research arm of the National Student Clearinghouse and publishes research about student enrollment, mobility, completion, and other important student outcomes. Their nationwide network of nearly 3,600 postsecondary institutions provides current student-level data representing approximately 97 percent of postsecondary enrollment.