Current Term Enrollment Estimates: Fall 2014

By Nicholas Brock

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC) recently re-published its report that looks into current college term enrollments for the Fall term. The 2014 report includes national enrollment estimates by institutional sector, state, enrollment intensity, age group and gender.

Among the report’s primary findings:

• In the Fall of 2014, overall postsecondary enrollments decreased 1.3% from the prior year.
  • While enrollment figures remained unchanged for four-year public institutions, they increased among four-year private nonprofits by 1.6%.
  • Enrollment figures declined for public two-year institutions by 3.5%, representing the biggest change in the last year.
  • Taken as a whole, public sector enrollments (2-year and 4-year combined) declined by 1.5% this past Fall.
• Full-time and part-time enrollments declined by 1.4% and 1.2% respectively from Fall of 2013 to Fall of 2014.
  • The largest enrollment decline in full-time enrollment was at private, for-profit institutions (4.9%), followed closely by two-year public institutions (4.8%).
  • The largest enrollment increase for part-time students was also at private, for-profit institutions (10.6%)
• Overall, enrollment declined slightly more for men than for women (1.4% compared to 1.3%).
  • The greatest female enrollment decline was experienced in the for-profit sector, while the greatest increase in enrollment was experienced by men was also in the for-profit sector.
• Montana saw the largest decline in overall enrollment (5.5%) while New Hampshire saw the largest increase in overall enrollment (19.9%) in the Fall of 2014.