Collegiate Times

Rate of Change from Previous Fall

National Student Clearinghouse Research Center recently released a report revealing the Great Recession’s impact on higher education enrollment.

A few years ago, people were worried that the number of applicants would decrease while the number of dropouts increased. But according to the report, the results showed a minimal effect on enrollment.

The levels of enrollment of new students rose to 2.135 million in 2010, up from 1.997 million in 2006, an increase of 6.8 percent.

The sharpest one-year jump, in 2009, followed the recession’s onset by a couple of years; 2010 brought a slight decline, with two-year colleges accounting for most of the dip.

Enrollments of new students at four-year colleges remained stable though. Depsite public institutions receiving budget cuts, they still saw increases in all but one year.

“Applications have still been strong (despite the recession),” said Larry Hincker, Tech spokesman. “One of the things that happens in a recession is that peope either stay in school or go back to school. We still plan to receive about 5,150 incoming freshmen.”

Although the recession seemed to not influence the rate of incoming students, there was a change in the amount of high-school graduates attending community college.

The authors of the report found that, “Specifically, enrollment in the two-year sector increased by 8.3 percent between the 2008 and 2009 cohorts, followed by a 5.1 percent decrease in year 2010. By comparison, the four-year sector saw cohort-to-cohort changes that were less pronounced, although they still showed similar alternation between larger and smaller increases. For example, the 2008 cohort enrolled in four-year institutions was 1.3 percent larger than the 2007 cohort; but in the following year, 2009, the cohort was only 0.7 percent larger.”

The report says this trend was driven by two groups of students: those who would have chosen to attend a four-year institution given a better economy, and those who would join the work force.

Another factor is a term called “mobility.” According the the report, adults and high-school graduates are transferring to several insititutions to earn their degree. This prompted the authors of the report to look into the difference between retention (a student’s continuing enrollment at the same college) and persistence (a student’s continuing enrollment in any college).

First- to second-year persistence rates were about 13 percent higher than retention rates across cohorts of students who enrolled between 2006 and 2009. 

The authors wrote that this affirms “much research based on retention measures ... underestimates the number of students who continue in higher education.” In addition to this fact, they found community colleges had the greatest gaps between retention and persistence rates.

In response to the recession, Tech has implemented many funds and programs that have ensured that students would not be heavily affected.

In 2009, the university created an emergency loan fund for students and families buffeted by changing employment conditions.

The Horizons Program, which is a pool of $500,000, was made available to the University’s Office of University Scholarships and Financial Aid. It was designed to assist enrolled Tech undergraduate students and families experiencing a significant reduction in income due to family job loss or other similar significant reduction in family income.

In addition to this program, other financial aid resources have been already available, such as the Presidential Scholarship Initiative, Funds for the Future, endowed need and merit based scholarships, or other state and federal programs.

The new report, “National Postsecondary Enrollment Trends: Before, During, and After the Great Recession,” examines the cohorts of students who enrolled in colleges between the fall of 2006 and the fall of 2010, providing a unique and timely snapshot of where—and how—students are going to college. 

The report is the first in a series of analyses that the organization plans to release in the coming months.

A version of this article appeared in the Jul 21 issue of the Collegiate Times.