Spring 2020 Current Term Enrollment Estimates

By: Aric Fulton

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center recently released a report entitled Spring 2020 Current Term Enrollment Estimates, addressing the potential impact of the pandemic on postsecondary undergraduate student enrollment in the Spring of 2020. 

Overall, the findings show that most students maintained the same enrollment status whether they studied full-time, half-time, or less than half-time, from the beginning of the term to the end, regardless of their demographic characteristics or the type of institution they attended. 

Some of the key findings include:

• Changes in Spring 2020 enrollment were consistent with pre-pandemic years.
  • In the Spring of 2020, 12% of students changed their enrollment status.
    • In 2018 and 2019, 13% of students changed their enrollment status during the term. 
• Students who increased their enrollment intensity typically did so in January, indicating no sign of pandemic effects. 
  • Similar to years prior, 2020 showed increases in enrollment intensity in January. There was no evidence that significant numbers of newly unemployed adult learners increased their enrollment intensity to full-time after the start of the pandemic.

• Enrollment intensity reductions peaked in April after campus shutdowns.
  • 60% of reductions in enrollment intensity happened in March or later including changes from full-time to part-time, leaves of absence, and withdrawals. 
  • Overall, the Spring 2020 rate of reduced enrollment intensity from full time to part time was consistent with pre-pandemic numbers at about 6%.
  • Community college students were most likely to have reduced enrollment mid-term, compared to students enrolled in public four-year institutions. 

• Overall withdrawal rates remain at pre-pandemic levels.
  • The percent of students who withdrew during the Spring semester remained stable from the previous two years—3.7% in 2020 and 4% in 2018 and 2019.

• More students took approved leaves of absence this year, specifically in March and April. 
  • In 2018 and 2019, leaves of absence in the Spring semesters accounted for 0.026% of all enrollees.
    • That number doubled to 0.045% for the Spring of 2020. 
  • Notably, leaves of absence increased by 206% for African-American students, 287% for Hispanic students, 70% for white students and 59% for Asian students. 

• New April enrollments in 2020 were far below previous years. 
• • In 2018 and 2019, approximately 90,000 new enrollments were reported with a start date in April; in 2020 the number had fallen to 17,000.