Number of Students Attending Ohio Public Colleges Falls
Columbus, Ohio (WCMH) – As colleges and universities struggle to recover from COVID-19, the number of undergraduate and graduate students in U.S. colleges is down by more than a million compared to pre-pandemic. This trend is on the rise at many colleges in Ohio.
An analysis of nine public four-year colleges in Ohio found that most, if not all, colleges where enrollments were declining statewide. Some college numbers suggest a clear correlation between the pandemic and declines in enrollment, while others’ declines began long before his COVID-19 existed. had started.
The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reported total Post-secondary enrollment has fallen by more than 1.1 million Enrollments across US public and private two- and four-year colleges are down just over 0.5% from 2021 from 2019 to 2022, suggesting stability, experts say It’s possible, but enrollment at public four-year colleges has more than doubled overall. admission rate.
Eight of the nine Ohio universities analyzed had fewer fall 2022 enrollments than they did in fall 2019, and the University of Cincinnati boasts record fall enrollments. Most colleges in Ohio also have his first-year enrollments down, with only the University of Cincinnati and Ohio University increasing her freshman enrollments.
Total enrollment
While some Ohio colleges have seen enrollment declines after hitting record peaks in 2019 or 2020, most colleges in Ohio are expected to see 2022 enrollments for multiple years. Analysis shows that it was the bottom of the downtrend over the period.
To illustrate the difference in enrollment, we split the nine universities into two charts, as shown below.
After reaching a record high of 68,262 students in Fall 2019, Ohio State’s enrollment declined 3.6% to 65,795 during the Fall 2022 semester. The first few years of the pandemic remained relatively unscathed, but 2020 and he saw only modest declines in 2021, with Ohio State’s enrollments down nearly 2,000 since his 2021. I’m here.
The decline in overall enrollment is partly intentional. After undergraduate enrollment at the Columbus campus peaked at 47,106 students in fall 2021, spokesperson Chris Booker said: previously told NBC4 Ohio has decided to reduce the number of first graders it accepts.
Bowling Green State University likewise reached record enrollments before facing a decline, surpassing 20,000 in fall 2020. Since then, however, enrollments have fallen below pre-pandemic levels, with fall 2022 enrollments at 18,732 for him, the lowest number of students since Bowling Green College. At least 2015.
But for most of Ohio’s other public universities, declining enrollment is nothing new. Some have seen enrollment decline over the years.
At the University of Toledo, enrollment has been declining since at least 2016, but the rate of decline is accelerating. Fall 2022 total enrollment is down 8.6% from 2021. In his September 2022 press release, University of Toledo President Gregory Postel lamented the university’s continued downsizing.
“This fall’s decline in enrollment was not unexpected, but it is not sustainable,” said Postel. “At UToledo, enrollment has been a challenge for years. We will continue to think creatively about student recruitment, but it is not his 20,000-student past UToledo, but a 15,000-student college. We also need to re-evaluate our operations as
Facing a similarly significant decline in enrollment is the University of Akron. Fall 2022 registration numbers are just under 15,000, making Akron 27% smaller than he was in 2018.
Enrollments at Kent State University, Ohio University, and Youngstown State University are also down from before the pandemic, albeit to a lesser extent. His 2021 enrollments at Cleveland State University have surpassed their 2020 figures, but their 2022 enrollments are down more than 10% from the fall of 2018.
Freshmen/1st year students
Freshman enrollments have taken a hit at most of Ohio’s public universities, as have gross enrollments.
Only the University of Cincinnati has more first-year freshmen in 2022 than it did in 2018. In fact, record-breaking highs have come after recent lows. With 8,220 students, his 2022 new-she freshman cohort in Cincinnati has him more than 10% more than his 2018 cohort.
Jack Miner, vice president of admissions administration at the University of Cincinnati, attributes much of the increase in new enrollments to the university’s growth efforts. The university has a goal of 60,000 students by 2030. An increase of about 23% from 2021.
“We’ve been really focused on our values. We’re totally access agencies,” Miner said. “We are focused on creating opportunities for more Black students, Latino students, and first-generation students to go to college, and we have never seen college as part of the future. We are trying to target the student population.”
Three other universities saw more new first-year cohorts in 2022 than in 2021. In Ohio, his latest class of 5,082 suggests a near-full recovery from his 2020 low of over 4,000 enrollments. Bowling Green and Kent State saw modest increases in 2021.
Not all colleges have a growth mindset for their next class. Ohio, for example, has reduced the number of her first-year freshmen it will admit in the fall of 2022, despite having a record high of more than 71,000 applicants. For others, first-year enrollments have declined since pre-pandemic.
Toledo hit the new freshman cohort the hardest. In 2022, he has 1,854 students, nearly 40% less than in 2018. However, the decline in freshman enrollment has not accelerated. 2020 was the year when Toledo experienced its biggest decline in first-year enrollments.
Cleveland State University and the University of Akron also saw the steepest first-year enrollment declines in 2020, with 2020 classes 13.1% lower than 2021 at both universities.
Of course, not all U.S. universities are seeing a decline in enrollment.Although total enrollment in 2020 declined slightly to less than 100, the University of Michigan had 51,225 students, its highest ever Ohio State University, on the other hand, is the smallest university since 2016 but still has 15,000 more students than its biggest rival.
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