In this brief, the authors examine changes in enrollments at the Los Angeles Community College District between fall 2017 and summer 2023 to document the extent of pandemic-era enrollment declines overall and across student populations.

Impacts to postsecondary institutions' enrollment and financial positions that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic were examined in this study. Taking a quantitative observational approach, enrollment trends as they relate to changes in tuition and fee revenue, unrestricted cash on hand, and unrestricted investments held are analyzed to determine…

The fall 2023 and spring 2024 undergraduate enrollment increases, marking the first growth since the COVID-19 pandemic, show signs of a post-pandemic turnaround for higher education. However, a significant share of current undergraduates will eventually disengage from college before earning a degree or other credential. They will join tens of…

Colleges and universities were hit hard by the COVID crisis. The American Council on Education (ACE) estimated a total impact of $120 billion in a recent letter to legislators. That number reflects both direct expenses and lost revenues. It is easy to identify the direct expenses associated with testing, cleaning, PPE, remote learning technology…

Washington's high school graduation rate has increased over the past decade. In 2022, 82 percent of high school students in the state graduated in four years, a six-percentage point increase over the 2013 graduation rate. This report looks at postsecondary enrollment trends for Washington high school graduates in the classes of 2020 and 2021…

The COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted enrollment, a continuation of the decline ongoing since 2010. Two-year colleges are highly dependent on tuition revenue. Consequently, the pandemic exacerbated the postsecondary economic crisis, as 2-year institutions faced financial hardship amidst enrollment uncertainties. In response to the pandemic,…

Currently, little to no research is available that translates the decrease in college enrollment and retention into dollar amounts, nor discussions about the numbers and funding needed to revive colleges to pre-COVID numbers. COVID-19 was said to have hit areas, populations, and groups of people who were already underrepresented, but this remains…

Across the landscape of higher education, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused fundamental changes at a variety of scales. To understand which aspects of higher education instruction at the departmental (meso-scale) level were most and least impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, chairs of geoscience departments at public higher education institutions in…

In 2011, Sweden introduced tuition fees for students from countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland when they enrolled at higher education institutions (HEIs). As a direct consequence, the number of students in Sweden from those countries decreased by 80% that year. Since then, the number of students has increased again…

The Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER) Fund had two main purposes: (1) to ensure that colleges could continue to provide education to students in the wake of the pandemic and (2) to provide emergency financial assistance through colleges directly to students. Four years after the onset of the pandemic, this ARCC Network brief uses college…

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted nearly every aspect of the social and economic lives of individuals, families, and communities. It also highlighted and deepened existing racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities. Education, too, was negatively impacted by the pandemic. Research has provided ample evidence about the challenges related to learning…

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, the federal government responded by expanding the country's safety-net programs, including through stimulus payments. There were also significant federal policy changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the largest food assistance program in the United States. Benefit amounts were increased,…

Community colleges report general opening spring term enrollment figures to the Illinois Community College Board using a brief web-based survey. These figures reflect student enrollments as of the end of registration for the Spring 2022 semester--usually the 10th day of the term. Community colleges in Illinois serve a racially and ethnically…

According to the American Community Survey (ACS), about one-quarter (24.8 percent) of the U.S. population over the age of 3 was enrolled in school in 2021. This report provides a comprehensive picture of the state of school enrollment using recently published data from the ACS. It outlines modern enrollment trends while also offering comparisons…

To mitigate the spread of COVID-19, many colleges and universities in the United States adopted remote policies, shifting campus operations and instruction from in-person to virtual in 2020. Since many students were not physically required to be present on college campuses, one would expect a large shift in national enrollment and a disruption of…