Current Term Enrollment Estimates Report Shows Slight Gains for Higher Education

The latest National Student Clearinghouse Research Center report reveals positive news for higher education, with undergraduate enrollment growing 1.2% and graduate enrollment growing 0.6%. Among the three largest sectors, growth was highest at community colleges, which gained 118,000 students (+2.6%) after steep declines during the pandemic.

The Current Term Enrollment Estimates report showed that freshman enrollment also grew this fall, but at a slower rate (+0.8%, +18,000) than undergraduate enrollment overall.

“The number of students in college has finally turned the corner after years of decline,” said Doug Shapiro, Executive Director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. “The small uptick this fall is a welcome change for higher education, but there are still over a million empty seats on campuses today that were filled five years ago.”

Other key findings include:

• Total postsecondary enrollment — undergraduate and graduate combined — increased 1.1 percent (+193,000).
• Enrollment in associate programs saw the highest growth (+2.2%, +96,000) among undergraduates. Bachelor’s programs grew at a lower rate (+0.7%, +63,000). Despite these gains, associate enrollment remains 14.2% below fall 2019 levels, and bachelor’s enrollment remains 3.3% below 2019.
• Undergraduate certificate programs notched a third consecutive year of fall term growth, gaining 18,000 students, although the growth rate (+1.8%) has slowed considerably from its high in fall 2021 (+9.8%). Certificate enrollment is 15.6 percent above 2019 levels.
• Dual enrollment (students 17 and younger) continued to increase at both community colleges (+5.2%, +44,000) and public PABs (+7.4%, +10,000). At the other end of the age spectrum, there was rare growth in enrollment of the oldest students (age 30+) at community colleges (+2.2%, +20,000).

The report details enrollment by ethnoracial groups, undergraduate majors, graduate programs, and regional and state enrollment trends. This expanded edition also features new analyses of students’ neighborhood income background, enrollment at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), community college enrollment by transfer or vocational program focus, and trends by institution locale, along with more detailed information on enrollment by credential level, age, and major field. To learn more, read the Current Term Enrollment Estimates report. The press release is available here.

The CTEE Expanded Edition report is supported in part by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through grant R305X220022 to Teachers College, Columbia University. This project is part of the Accelerating Recovery in Community Colleges (ARCC) Network. The opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.

“The number of students in college has finally turned the corner after years of decline. The small uptick this fall is a welcome change for higher education, but there are still over a million empty seats on campuses today that were filled five years ago.”

Doug Shapiro
Executive Director, National Student Clearinghouse Research Center

Additional Resources:

• Read the Fall 2023 Current Term Enrollment Estimates Report
• Visit the Clearinghouse’s Research Center