https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltni … 4681ee3d95The fall 2019 postsecondary enrollment numbers have been tabulated, and the news is once again sure to concern college leaders. Overall, postsecondary enrollments decreased by 1.3% in fall 2019, a drop of more than 231,000 students from last year. That’s according to the the Fall 2019 Current Term Enrollment Estimates report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. (Institutions that submit enrollment data to the Clearinghouse account for 97% of all enrollments at Title IV, degree-granting institutions.)
For the first time this decade, the nation’s fall semester’s unduplicated enrollments dipped below 18 million, a decline of more than 2 million students since its peak in 2011.
This article was posted in December of 2019. The COVID crisis is going to cause a decline in college attendance even further. The depression the economy is in will push numbers down further. High education is kind of fucked and nothing will be done about it.
When the Great Recession hit in 2008 enrollment in higher education spiked. People were confident that things would eventually turn around and the investment was worth it. Even graduate schools experienced a bump due to professionals looking to get new skills. Now? Do people feel confident things are going to turn around? We are still in free fall at the moment and the virus just had its best day ever..
To top off all of the bad news we also need to keep in the mind that the cost of college is just going higher and higher. People were getting priced out of higher education before the economy crashed. That was a minor crisis before all of this.
So where does higher education go form here? What needs to be done? Me? I feel that we should just burn it all down.
