In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges and universities are pressed to re-evaluate their long- and short-term strategies, particularly as they pertain to enrollment management and student support services. The Research Center’s Stay Informed report series continues to enable educational and policy leaders to make informed decisions through timely enrollment trend reporting that began with the pandemic.
The Stay Informed series began in the summer of 2020 to track COVID-19’s impact on students and institutions. Three years later, even as the acute phase of the pandemic recedes, the enrollment dashboards will continue to be updated within the first two months of every term using the latest enrollment data available to highlight disparities in pandemic recovery across differing student and institutional characteristics.
Dashboards feature national and state-level data on annual enrollment changes across the three most recent years, with additional levels of disaggregation by student demographics and field of major and institutional characteristics. Detailed data underlying the dashboards are available for download.
Highlights for Spring 2023 (as of February 23)
- Community college enrollment is starting to grow in spring 2023 (+2.1%), fueled by strong growth among dual enrollees (age 17 and under) and freshmen. Community college growth is occurring across all campus settings while undergraduate enrollment is increasing only at suburban campuses for four-year institutions.
- Overall undergraduate enrollment was steady this spring (+0.2%), with only the public four-year sector experiencing undergraduate enrollment declines. Total enrollment (graduate and undergraduate enrollment combined) has remained unchanged compared to 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 had more muted enrollment changes (+0.3% and -0.6%, respectively).
- Undergraduate men, hit particularly hard at the beginning of the pandemic, are now seeing enrollment growth (+0.7%), while the enrollment slide continues for women (-0.9%).
- Latinx students were the only major racial and ethnic group to show enrollment increases (+0.9%).
Navigate details for different institutions and students using the tabs at the top of the dashboard.
| Upcoming Reports |
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| FALL 2023 |
First Look Fall 2023 |
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