Enrollment declines continued to worsen this spring. Total postsecondary enrollment fell to 16.2 million this spring, marking a one-year decline of 4.1 percent or 685,000 students. Enrollment declined this spring at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Following a 3.5 percent drop last spring, postsecondary institutions have lost nearly 1.3 million students since spring 2020.
In fall 2019, overall postsecondary enrollments decreased 1.3 percent or more than 231,000 students from the previous fall to 17.9 million students.
In the state supplement to our seventh annual report on national college completion rates, we take a state-by-state look at the six-year outcomes for students who began postsecondary education in fall 2012.
This fifth annual report on national college completion rates offers a look at the six-year outcomes for students who began postsecondary education in fall 2010, toward the end of the Great Recession. It looks at the various pathways students took toward degree completion, as well as the completion rates through May 2016 for the different student types who followed each pathway.
Of all associate degrees earned in 2008-09 that were reported to the National Student Clearinghouse, 488,046 were found to be the first postsecondary credential earned by a student. Forty-one percent of these students went on to earn a bachelor’s degree within six years.
