To highlight unique enrollment patterns attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Student Clearinghouse continues to track outstanding college enrollment trends in near real-time. The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center uses the two most recent years (2019 and 2020) to serve as baselines to investigate COVID-19’s impact on spring 2021 enrollment. Results in this report are preliminary as of February 11, 2021 and they reflect the 6.8 million spring enrollments reported by 43 percent of the colleges that participate in the Clearinghouse. The highlights for spring 2021 enrollment thus far can be found below:
- Spring 2021 enrollment displayed the same level of enrollment losses as fall 2020 enrollment. Undergraduate enrollment is down 4.5 percent compared to last spring while graduate enrollment has increased 4.3 percent. Overall, college enrollment is 2.9 percent below last spring’s enrollment.
- Overall, enrollment changes in the spring of 2021 mirror last fall’s trends. The community college sector remains the most affected sector with enrollment down 9.5% this spring, the same as last fall.
- Graduate enrollment is growing this spring at a higher rate than in the fall. There is a 4.3% increase in graduate enrollment this spring compared to a 2.9% increase last fall. This is largely in part due to an increase at public four-year institutions.
- In contrast to the graduate-level enrollment boost in the public four-year sector, public four-year undergraduate enrollment is falling steeply compared to last spring as well as last fall (fell 3.3% this spring compared to a 1.1% fall last spring, and a 1.9% decrease last fall).
- There are also drops in associate degree enrollment (10.5% decrease this spring compared to 2.9% decrease last spring and 9% last fall).
- Continuing the pre-pandemic trend, certificate program enrollment is up at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
- Across all racial and ethnic categories, undergraduate enrollment has declined. While Native American enrollment has decreased the most, Asian and Latinx enrollments dropped this spring in contrast to their growth last spring. Most notable, Latinx women declined nearly 10 percent at community colleges after having made gains in the prior year.
- Traditional college-age student enrollment (ages 18-24) declined sharply this spring (5.3% decline compared to 0.6% decline last spring) and decreased at twice the rate of adult students aged 25 and older (2.6%). Adult male students continue to be worse off than their female counterparts.
