(The Center Square) — New enrollment at Pennsylvania’s state-run college system increased again this fall, pointing to stabilization after years of worrying decline, officials said.
The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education announced Monday that first-time student enrollment jumped 3.4% for fall 2023, and is up 10% since 2021.
Chancellor Dan Greenstein credited the fifth year of tuition freezes and a focus on programs that lead to sought-after jobs as an enrollment driver.
“We are pleased the strategy to freeze tuition and align more programs to in-demand careers is benefiting students,” he said in a press release. “We know that Pennsylvania needs state system universities to help address worker shortages in healthcare, STEM, business and education, all of which are among our strongest and most enrolled programs. We are focused on preparing more Pennsylvanians to be both comprehensively educated and specifically skilled for good jobs that our state’s economy depends on.”
The biggest boost came at East Stroudsburg University, which saw a 21% growth in first-time enrollment for a degree or certificate. Cheyney and Indiana followed (15%), with Slippery Rock, West Chester, and Shippensburg seeing growth as well. Those seven universities had 9% enrollment growth overall.
However, throughout the system, total enrollment fell by 2.2%,“indicating that enrollment is stabilizing after more than a decade of declines,” officials noted.
Partially, the issue is out of PASSHE’s control. Nationally, student enrollment numbers have fallen as the population of college-aged students shrank, and the pandemic made the problem worse. From 2012 to 2022, Pennsylvania’s college student population fell by 22%, with community colleges and four-year colleges bearing the brunt of the loss.
Likewise, as student numbers shrank, competition got tougher. In 28 states, including Pennsylvania, student numbers at flagship schools have grown while students at regionals shrank. In the commonwealth from 2010 to 2021, flagships gained 11% more students but regionals lost almost 26%.
Major investments hoping to beat the trend didn’t pay off, either. Every PASSHE school except for Cheyney carries debt from residence halls that were renovated or built to attract more students; some, like Edinboro University, have moved to sell off dorms due to low occupancy.
But system leaders have hope for recovery.
They pointed to PennWest, the recently merged school that was formerly California, Clarion, and Edinboro universities, exceeding its first-year student enrollment goal by 1.1%. West Chester, too, had its largest ever first-year class, and 82% of recent PASSHE graduates working in Pennsylvania majored in high-priority programs like health care, STEM, business, and education and social services.
In asking for a $200 million funding boost in 2022, Chancellor Greenstein pitched the system’s strategy as growing enrollments by 20% and educating Pennsylvanians for high-demand careers. The focus, Greenstein said, would be on boosting graduation and retention rates, as well as certificate completion.
In August, PASSHE announced a certificate partnership with Google, which grants students certification for programs that are shorter than a traditional two- or four-year degree.
