Recently, the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) released a first look at postsecondary enrollment estimates for the fall 2022 semester. Compared to the fall prior, overall undergraduate enrollment declined by 1.1%, returning to pre-pandemic rates of decline, with community colleges overall and CTE certification programs experiencing improved enrollment trends. These much smaller declines are a significant improvement over last fall’s enrollment numbers, which showed a 2.1% decline in undergraduate enrollment and a 5% decline for community colleges.
In fall 2022, enrollment losses at community colleges slowed significantly, with only a 0.4% drop since fall 2021, compared to four-year institutions that experienced much greater declines. According to NSC, improvements at community colleges can be largely attributed to an 11.5% enrollment increase among dually enrolled high school students. Additionally, overall freshman enrollment levels at community colleges increased by 0.9% since the fall prior, stabilizing freshman enrollment at community colleges for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
A closer look at the demographics shows that enrollment for all students of color at community colleges increased since fall 2021, especially for Latinx (2.9%) and Native American (1.9%) students and students who identified their race as “Other” (4.1%), with gains being even larger for freshman students of color. In contrast, white student enrollment declined by 4.7%. Additionally, the 18- to 20-year-old age group at community colleges grew by 1.4% since fall 2021 compared to a sharp decline among the 25- to 29-year-old age group (-9.2%).
When looking at enrollment by credential type, associate degree programs declined the most by 1.7% followed by bachelor’s degree programs that declined by 1.5% since fall 2021. In contrast, enrollment in undergraduate certificate programs increased by 2.5%.
NSC also included estimates for enrollment in the top five majors by credential type. For certificate programs, CTE programs such as precision production (7.2%), business management (6.9%) and mechanic and repair technologies (3.3%) increased significantly compared to the fall prior while health professions declined by 3.4%. For associate degree programs, enrollment in computer and information sciences grew by 10.1%, while business management (-0.5%), health professions (-5.0%) and security and protective services (-7.6%) declined.
Currently, NSC has not released their final report on 2022 postsecondary enrollment numbers. Once released, ACTE hopes to examine the full list of CTE programs that experienced enrollment growth or declines.