College enrollment drops nationally

IOWA CITY - College enrollment nationally continued its slide from 2012 to 2013, and two-year colleges accounted for the largest part of the decline, according to census data made public Wednesday.

Four-year colleges across the country saw a collective 1 percent uptick, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, but it wasn't enough to compensate for the larger 10 percent enrollment drop among two-year institutions - including community colleges.

Experts credit the overall enrollment decline to changes in the economy, workforce, high school graduate populations, and student options. In Iowa, according to admissions officials, those factors have both helped and hurt the universities and colleges - with some bucking the national trend and others falling in line with it.

Iowa State University, for example, saw most aspects of its enrollment increase again this fall. It reported its largest total enrollment in school history with 34,732 students, including 6,041 freshmen, 28,893 undergraduates, and 4,950 graduate students, setting new records for the Ames campus.

The University of Iowa this year also saw an increase in total enrollment to 31,387, and it welcomed a record entering class of 4,666 students.

But total UI graduate student numbers dropped to 5,804 from 5,939. And enrollment counts for students specifically in the UI Graduate College - including students pursuing doctoral and many master's degrees - have slid from 5,323 in 2009 to 4,610 this year, hitting the college's overall and financial aid budget, said John Keller, dean of the UI Graduate College.

The University of Northern Iowa - despite its number of new students from high school climbing 4 percent over last fall - saw overall enrollment drop to 11,928 from 12,159 last fall and 12,273 in 2012.

Cedar Rapids-based Kirkwood Community College was projecting enrollment to remain steady this fall over last at about 15,000 students. Although that represents a decrease from Kirkwood's numbers during the recession, officials have called it a 'nice level” - but they don't want to dip much lower.

Concerns about further enrollment drops nationally and in Iowa are real, officials say, both because of population shifts and increasing competition. The Board of Regents over the summer approved a new way of allocating state funds to Iowa's public universities that ties 60 percent of the dollars to resident enrollment - ramping up competition among the institutions for Iowa's smaller pool of high school graduates.

'In the last decade, we have gone through a decline in graduating high school seniors in the state, and that has put pressure on all the colleges,” said Phillip Caffrey, director of admissions operations and policy for Iowa State. 'I believe we have plateaued and bottomed out, and there will be a slight increase in the coming years. But I don't think of that as being significant at all.”

According to the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, Iowa's high school graduate numbers were projected to drop 9 percent from 2010-11 to 2013-14 before starting to rise again, with 5 percent growth projected between this academic year and 2022-23.

'What is significant is that while the number of graduating seniors won't change much, the composition will,” Caffrey said. 'It will become more diverse.”

The commission reports that by 2019-20, the number of white non-Hispanic high school graduates in Iowa will have fallen by 14 percent while Hispanic numbers are expected to continuing rising, more than doubling by 2019-20.

'Those are factors we are taking into consideration,” Caffrey said, referencing recruiting and enrollment efforts. 'We will be seeing more first-generational and multicultural students.”

According to the Census Bureau's national report, there were 19.5 million U.S. college students in 2013, including 5.3 million in two-year colleges, 10.5 million in four-year colleges, and 3.7 million in graduate school.

Of that total, 58.2 percent were non-Hispanic white students, 16.5 percent were Hispanic, 14.7 percent were black, and 8.1 percent were Asian.

In 2012, Hispanic college enrollment seemed to be defying the overall downward trend as it continued to grow, according to the Census Bureau. But, in 2013, Hispanic college enrollment stalled as a larger share of Hispanic college students attend the two-year schools that saw the sharper declines.

The national enrollment drops in 2013 and 2012 combined to total 930,000 students - larger than any college enrollment drop before the recession, according to the Census Bureau.

With all the changes in the higher education landscape, and with competition for funds and students continuing to grow, university admissions officials in Iowa say they aim to stay focused on providing a quality education at an affordable price and hope that will keep them on an upward trajectory.

'With all the tactics and strategies and things you do, at the end of the day, what it really comes down to is the quality of the educational experience and your ability to communicate that in an effective way to students and families,” said Michael Barron, UI assistant provost for enrollment management and executive director of admissions.