College enrolment drops, even as the pandemic’s effects ebb

The ongoing enrolment crisis at United States colleges and universities deepened in spring 2022, raising concerns that a fundamental shift is taking place in attitudes toward the value of a degree – even as the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted operations for higher education, writes Stephanie Saul for The New York Times.

The latest college enrolment figures released on Thursday 26 May by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center indicated that 662,000 fewer students enrolled in undergraduate programmes in spring 2022 than a year earlier, a decline of 4.7%. Graduate and professional student enrolment, which had been a bright spot during the pandemic, also declined 1% from last year.

Doug Shapiro, the centre’s executive director, suggested that the numbers and the breadth of the declines indicate an underlying change, as students question whether college is the ticket to the middle class and a good-paying job.
Full report on The New York Times site