There has not been much in the way of good news in the higher education industry recently. From news about which institutions are in the presidential administration’s crosshairs to articles about the proliferation of students passing off artificial intelligence as their own work to schools closing because of low enrollment, it can be hard to find a silver lining at times.
But there was some recent positive news for the industry in the form of encouraging spring enrollment data and a survey showing increased confidence in higher education. Let’s take a closer look.
Enrollment is up
The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center publishes its’ Current Term Enrollment Estimates’ (CTEE) series every January and May. The CTEE provides final enrollment estimates for the fall and spring terms, with the estimates broken down by characteristics such as major and student demographics, both at a national level and state by state.
Some of the highlights of the Spring 2025 report include:
- Total postsecondary enrollment increased by 562,000 students compared to spring 2024, a 3.2% increase. Undergraduate enrollment was up 3.5% to 15.3 million, and graduate enrollment increased 1.5%. All of those numbers are not where the industry was before the pandemic, but they’re the best they’ve been since spring 2020.
- The number of undergraduate students in their 20’s increased. This is an area that has shown consistent declines since the pandemic. Students aged 21-24 increased by 3.2%, while students 25-29 were up 5.9%, a sign that demographic was starting to recover.
- Enrollment increased in every region of the United States. The South saw the largest growth at 4%. Just six states saw declines in total enrollment – Alaska, Idaho, Missouri, Nebraska, Oregon, and Vermont.
- Most ethnic and racial groups saw increases in enrollment, with Black students showing the largest growth at 10.3%. The report does warn, though, that this data is an optional part of the information it receives from institutions, so there is some variability in that aspect of the report.
Increased confidence
A new survey shows that for the first time in a decade, Americans’ confidence in higher education has increased. The survey, conducted by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation, polled 1,402 adults in June. Among the adults surveyed, 42% expressed “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education. That’s up from 36% in 2023 and 2024.
This is the first time since it began the poll in 2015 that Gallup has measured an increase in confidence. The initial poll measured confidence at 57%. Among the other findings, Americans are more confident today than a year ago in both four-year colleges and two-year colleges, and the confidence rating was up from both college graduates and those surveyed who do not have a four-year degree.
Using the data to your advantage
These data points are encouraging for the industry as a whole, but it still takes work by institutions to take advantage of the information. It is only with the right analytics solution that schools can make decisions that can help them perform better using this type of information.
Colleges and universities have endless amounts of data. It can be difficult to focus on what’s important when faced with that amount of information. Analytics can help narrow the focus on the information that’s most relevant, while also increasing your capacity to take on more than one task and create efficiencies in multiple areas.
Higher education institutions are certainly paying attention to the information from the Gallup poll. Researchers asked participants what would increase their confidence in higher education. Among the answers were colleges could lower their costs, and focus more on practical job skills. Those are two great starting points where colleges can take their data and get to work on using the information they already have to address two very relevant issues that will help them improve.
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