Enrollment Declines in Colleges

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Created on Thursday, 16 April 2015 20:15

Written by Katrina Floranza

VERMONT- Across the country, colleges and institutions have seen a decline in student enrollment. Nationally, this year's freshman enrollment numbers compared to last year's fall enrollment numbers have declined about 1.5%, according to a report by the National Student Clearinghouse.

The National Student Clearinghouse report show that 4-year colleges nationwide have seen a decrease in enrollment by 9.7%, while 2-year colleges have decreased at 3.1% the last year.

According to the United Census Bureau, from 2006 to 2011, enrollment numbers increased by a little over 3 million, but since 2012 enrollment numbers have been declining. In fact, figures went down by almost half a million between the beginning of the 2012 and 2013 school year.

Colleges that have been facing this issue have cut staff, faculty, or classes in the past in order to try and work with the declining enrollment figures. "The current staff, faculty, and curriculum has been moving towards a growth model, when in reality, the demographics don't support a growth model," explains Lyndon State College President Joe Bertolino.

Lyndon State College is one of the many colleges facing this enrollment decline as well. President Bertolino says that Lyndon isn't the only one in Vermont, as Vermont Technical College, Johnson State College and Castleton State College have been known to see enrollment declines as well.

However, it's not just Vermont colleges that have realized this issue, "Very recently, I was invited to a meeting of college presidents in D.C., where all of them talked about facing the same problem and addressing the same issue," President Bertolino explains.

The problem isn't that easy to solve as many say that enrollment figures are expected to go down even more for the upcoming years. "Enrollment figures suggest that the number of students that are here on campus for the next three years will decline. So, for the next few years, we're anticipating a lower number of students here on campus," says Interim Dean Nolan Atkins of Lyndon State College.

When asked where this issue could stem from, many say it comes from the number of high school seniors going to college. "Over the last few years, we've seen a decline in the number of high school students in New England," Atkins says.

Jeb Spaulding, Chancellor of Vermont State Colleges agrees, "There are thousands of Vermont students who graduated from high school last June that are not in post-secondary education right now."

A report by the Vermont Agency of Education shows that across Vermont alone, there has been a decrease of 92 high school seniors this year compared to last.
"So, what that means for us here in higher education is that there are fewer perspective students to come to college right after high school," Atkins adds.