Current Term Enrollment – Spring 2018

Overview

In spring 2018, overall postsecondary enrollments decreased1.3 percent from the previous spring. Figure1 shows the 12-month percentage change (fall-to-fall and spring-to-spring) for each term over the last three years. Enrollments decreased among four-year for-profit institutions (-6.8 percent), two-year public institutions (-2.0 percent), four-year private nonprofit institutions (-0.4 percent), and four-year public institutions (-0.2 percent). Taken as a whole, public sector enrollments (two year and four-year combined) declined by 0.9 percent this spring.

Current Term Enrollment Estimates, published every December and May by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, include national enrollment estimates by institutional sector, state, enrollment intensity, age group, and gender. Enrollment estimates are adjusted for Clearinghouse data coverage rates by institutional sector, state, and year. As of spring 2018, postsecondary institutions actively submitting enrollment data to the Clearinghouse account for 97 percent of enrollments at U.S. Title IV, degree-granting institutions. Most institutions submit enrollment data to the Clearinghouse several times per term, resulting in highly current data. Moreover, since the Clearinghouse collects data at the student level, it is possible to report an unduplicated headcount, which avoids double-counting students who are simultaneously enrolled at multiple institutions.

Figure 1: Percent Change from Previous Year, Enrollment by Sector (Title IV, Degree-Granting Institutions)

Figure 2: Percent Change from Fall to Spring, Enrollment by Sector (Title IV, Degree-Granting Institutions)

Table 1: Estimated National Enrollment by Sector (Title IV, Degree-Granting Institutions)

UNDERSTANDING THE NUMBERS

Table 1 provides counts of spring term enrollments submitted to the Clearinghouse by April 11 of each year. Enrollments represent one student at one institution. Thus a student enrolled simultaneously at two institutions would be counted twice. The unduplicated headcount provides the number of unique students with no double-counting. This figure can be used to determine the percentage of concurrent enrollments in any year. In each spring term, about 2.0 percent of total enrollments can be accounted for by students enrolling in more than one institution.

Institutional classifications for the current term are based on the most recently available IPEDS institutional characteristics at the time of publication. Less-than-two-year institutions have been aggregated with two-year institutions. Two-year for-profits and two-year private nonprofits are not shown in the table due to small counts, but enrollments from those sectors are included in the overall totals. Additional notes on data and coverage are included at the end of this report.

Table 2: Estimated National Enrollment of First-Time College Students by Sector and Age Group (Title IV, Degree-Granting Institutions)

UNDERSTANDING THE NUMBERS

Table 2 provides enrollment counts for undergraduate students entering college for the first time in the spring term. These are mid-year starters, distinct from the first-year students who started in fall. Counts of first-time undergraduates for a spring term are limited to students who had no college enrollment (in any postsecondary institution) at age 18 or above prior to the beginning of the spring term and had not completed a college degree prior to the beginning of the spring term. Former dual enrollment students, first-time college students who had enrolled in college courses while still in high school, are included in the counts of first-time students for a spring term.

Table 6: Estimated National Enrollment by Sector and Age Group (Title IV, Degree-Granting Institutions)

UNDERSTANDING THE NUMBERS

Table 6 provides enrollment counts by student age group. This table includes all enrollments reported to the Clearinghouse, regardless of whether or not the student is enrolled in a credential-seeking program. Student age is calculated as of the first day of the term (a date specific to the institution). Less-than-two-year institutions have been aggregated with two-year institutions. Two-year for-profits and two-year private nonprofits are not shown in the table due to small counts, but enrollments from those sectors are included in the overall totals. Additional notes on data and coverage are included at the end of this document.

Table 7: Estimated National Enrollment by Sector and Gender (Title IV, Degree-Granting Institutions)

UNDERSTANDING THE NUMBERS

Table 7 provides counts of spring term enrollments by gender. Institutions reported student gender to the Clearinghouse for slightly less than half of all students. For all other students, gender was imputed based on first name. Less-than-two-year institutions have been aggregated with two-year institutions. Two-year for-profits and two-year private nonprofits are not shown in the table due to small counts, but enrollments from those sectors are included in the overall totals. Additional notes on data, coverage, and imputation of gender are included at the end of this report.

Table 10: Estimated Undergraduate Enrollment at Two-Year Institutions by Classification of Instructional Program Family

UNDERSTANDING THE NUMBERS

Table 10 provides college enrollment totals disaggregated by Classification of Instructional Program Family codes. The table excludes the following CIP family codes, each of which had total enrollments of less than 5,000: 05 (Area, Ethnic, Cultural, Gender, and Group Studies), 25 (Library Science), 28 (Military Science, Leadership, and Operational Art), 29 (Military Technologies and Applied Sciences), 33 (Citizenship Activities), 34 (Health-Related Knowledge and Skills), 35 (Interpersonal and Social Skills), 36 (Leisure and Recreational Activities), 37 (Personal Awareness and Self-Improvement), 38 (Philosophy and Religious Studies), 39 (Theology and Religious Vocations), 53 (High School/Secondary Diplomas and Certificates), and 60 (Residency Programs).

Notes on the Data

National Coverage of the Data

As of spring 2018, institutions actively submitting enrollment data to the Clearinghouse account for 97 percent of all enrollments at Title IV, degree-granting institutions in the nation. Because Clearinghouse participation grew over the period covered by this report, and because coverage of institutions (i.e., percentage of all institutions participating in the Clearinghouse) is not 100 percent for any individual year, weights were applied by institutional sector and state to better approximate enrollment figures for all institutions nationally. Using all IPEDS Title IV, degree-granting institutions as the base study population, weights for each institution type and state were calculated using the inverse of the rate of enrollment coverage for that sector or state in the relevant year. Given the unavailability of fall 2017 IPEDS enrollments at the time of publication, fall 2016 IPEDS enrollments were used as the basis for calculating the spring 2018 Clearinghouse coverage rates.

For detailed statistics on enrollment coverage, as well as several other aspects of Clearinghouse data, visit the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s  “Working With Our Data” page.

Differences from IPEDS

National Student Clearinghouse data are nonadjudicated, administrative data that come directly from college and university registrars. The data differ from IPEDS survey data in a number of important ways:

1. Term definition: IPEDS does not conduct a spring enrollment survey, so there are no comparable IPEDS numbers for the spring. For Clearinghouse reporting, institutions provide the start- and end-dates for each enrollment, rather than formally designating fall or spring terms.

   Spring Terms included in the Current Term Enrollment Estimates are those that: a) began between January 15 and March 31, inclusive OR b) ended between February 15 and April 30, inclusive OR c) began before January 15 AND ended after April 30.

2. Degree-granting status: When referencing IPEDS enrollment counts, it is important to distinguish counts limited to degree-granting institutions from those that also include non-degree granting institutions. NCES publishes both of these counts in IPEDS First-Look Reports. The Clearinghouse counts in this report are limited to Title IV, degree-granting institutions.
3. Enrollment status changes: Institutions submit data to the Clearinghouse throughout a given term, capturing changes in enrollment status from one submission to the next. The counts in this report include all students whose institution submitted at least one enrollment record showing the student as enrolled either full-time, three-quarters time, half-time, or less-than-half-time during the term. For IPEDS reporting, an institution generally counts a student according to the student’s enrollment status as of the institution’s IPEDS census date.
4. International students: International students are not included in this report. Clearinghouse enrollment records for international students continue to grow steadily as more institutions opt in to providing this data component. In order to ensure consistent year-to-year comparisons, however, we will continue to exclude international students from this report until the data coverage rate reaches a stable level. (According to the most recent IPEDS data, about five percent of the total enrollment in U.S. degree-granting institutions is accounted for by the nonresident alien category.)

Imputation of Gender

Institutions reported student gender to the Clearinghouse for slightly less than half of all students included in this report. The genders of the remaining students were imputed using a table of name-gender pairs that the Research Center developed using data publicly available from the Census Bureau and the Social Security Administration as well as the institution-reported data. The imputation used only those pairs in which the name had at least two instances and was associated with a single gender in at least 95 percent of the instances. The imputation is accurate in 99.6 percent of the cases with known gender. A detailed document on the development of our approach resides on the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s “Working With Our Data” Web page.