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THE NATIONAL STUDENT Clearinghouse Research Center recently published a report on postsecondary enrollment for fall 2021, including enrollment at community colleges, undergraduate institutions and graduate schools.
If you’re a believer in postsecondary education, the headline numbers weren’t encouraging. Enrollment fell by 2.7%, or 476,100 students. Over the two years since the start of the pandemic, it’s declined by 5.1%, or 937,500 students.
While the report offers no reasons for these declines, my view is that colleges are struggling to justify their value proposition to students and their families, especially during a pandemic that’s disrupted in-person learning. As I’ve noted before, college costs are extremely high, creating a significant financial burden for just about any family.
Why should a family take on six figures of debt when a student can earn a good wage at age 18? A manufacturing company near me is offering entry-level workers more than $20 an hour, plus training and benefits. Only a high school degree—or its equivalent—is required. With opportunities like that available, it can be hard to justify the cost of college.
This may be the reason behind the big drop in liberal arts majors. The number of liberal arts majors at four-year institutions fell by 78,774 students, or 7.6%, in fall 2021. By contrast, those majoring in computer and information sciences increased 1.3%, and that followed gains of 5.6% and 4.5% in the prior two years.
It appears some students have decided they need to graduate with solid technical skills to justify their tuition bill. Over the next several years, I believe we’ll continue to see students shift to majors that should lead them to lucrative careers. I also suspect many universities—especially private ones—will revise their pricing and course offerings to make themselves more compelling to students.
I’ll tell you why, unless you major/minor in the STEMs, you are wasting your money. However, A BBA in Business will serve you well; however, you need to major in Accounting or Finance not Marketing. Purchasing & Logistics is also a good major and the University of Tennessee offers one of the best programs in that discipline. Lastly, you need to match your kids expectations and drive into a University that is not going to bankrupt the family, yet afford a good, not “woke” education. And, Community College to start is the best way to see how things go before going off to the big Universities to major in your chosen discipline.
Oh, if you are a Conservative, Independent or Libertarian middle of the road family, you have to research the liberal, leftist curriculums at any University that you consider and understand that your child will have to endure these liberals to get a quality education in the disciplines I outlined above. It’s just the way it is these days to get a passing grade in the humanities and social sciences, for now!!!
$55k average starting salary for college graduates equals about $27/hr. In demand fields may be up to 60% higher, so less lucrative fields may be as low as no degree. If a cost effective degree costs $55k, it might be recovered in 4 years. The typical worker might work 40 years. With those statistics, I think college is still likely a good long term bet for emerging adult students and those who care about them, even though it may not always work out. Of course, staying out of debt is also a good long term bet.
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/compensation/pages/salaries-for-college-graduates-climb-amid-labor-shortages.aspx
Your understandable interpretation of the report’s data for liberal arts majors, which appears on page two, is incorrect. Table 10 presents a detailed listing of changes in a large number of majors where it indicates that there was a 7.6% decrease in CIP major code 24: General instructional programs and independent or individualized studies in the liberal arts subjects, the humanities disciplines and the general curriculum. In other words, the “liberal arts” category noted on page two only includes students who did not major in a specific liberal arts discipline.
Table 10 indicates that enrollment decreased in most disciplines with a few exceptions, including computer science +1.3% (as you noted), psychology +2.5%, foreign languages 4.3%, philosophy & religion 2.4%, and communications technology +18.7%. Despite the increase in computer and information sciences, there were significant decreases in engineering -3.6%, math & statistics -5.6%, and business -3.6%.
Thus I don’t think college enrollment data provide any support for the notion that students are rethinking the value of a liberal arts degree versus one in the applied fields. I also think it is too early to tell how the pandemic will affet future college enrollment.
https://nscresearchcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/CTEE_Report_Fall_2021.pdf