Mass. college enrollment declines 1.3%
Photo/Grant Welker
Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner
The number of students enrolled this fall at Massachusetts colleges fell 1.3% for the second consecutive annual decline, according to a report Monday by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
The dropping enrollment is not unique to Massachusetts, which has more than 427,000 college students and some of the country's most renowned schools. The national decline was 2%, and 35 states, plus Washington, D.C., saw their number of college students drop, the report said.
For Massachusetts, the declining numbers may be especially worrisome.
The economic impact of colleges is significant — University of Massachusetts said in 2016 it was responsible for $6.2 billion in economic activity in the state, for example, including $1.6 billion at the medical school in Worcester. The state has a projected decline in high school-age youth in the years ahead. The Institute of International Education reported in November saying foreign-student enrollment was on the decline nationally, including at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Clark University and UMass Medical School.
Enrollment drops in recent years have been especially stark at community colleges. At Worcester’s Quinsigamond Community College, full-time-equivalent enrollment fell 18% from 2012 to 2018, according to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education. At Gardner’s Mount Wachusett Community College, the drop was 22%.
The 1.3% decline in students this fall across Massachusetts adds to a 2.5% decline the previous fall.
Nationwide, small colleges have been seeing the sharpest declines, including in size ranges that apply to every Central Massachusetts college. Those with less than 3,000 students saw enrollment fall 3.9%, and those with between 3,000 and 9,999 students had their number of students drop 1.7%. Those over 10,000 had enrollment rise 2.7% on average.
Private, four-year colleges had the largest undergraduate enrollment drops nationally at 2.7%. Undergraduate enrollment at public, four-year colleges was down 1.7%.
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