Higher ed freshman enrollment increases but total enrollment still down

Although freshman enrollment in higher education increased 4.3% in fall 2022 compared to the previous year, total enrollment declined by 0.6% and still remains below pre-pandemic levels. Total enrollment of both undergraduate and graduate levels is down about 1.11 million students (5.8%) compared to fall 2019. Freshman enrollment in community colleges, which had taken a greater hit during the pandemic, is up 6.1% over fall 2019. The new data on enrollment was released by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

Public four-year institutions saw a 1.4% decline in enrollment (-88,000 students), while private for–profit four-year institutions increased 5% from fall 2021 (29,000 more students). Graduate enrollment fell 1.2% after two years of consecutive growth.

The Current Term Enrollment Estimates (CTEE) from the research center also features new analyses of race and ethnicity, undergraduate and graduate enrollment by major field at the state level, and institutional selectivity.