Number of students at Georgia universities dips for 2nd straight year

ATLANTA – The variety of college students fell for a second straight yr at Georgia’s public schools and universities, even because the state’s most prestigious universities stored rising.

Whereas Georgia’s universities had outperformed the nation in enrollment for years, numbers dipped extra sharply this yr, falling 1.8%, in comparison with 1.1% fewer college students nationwide tracked by the Nationwide Pupil Clearinghouse.

Angela Bell, the vice chancellor of analysis and coverage evaluation, attributed the lower to a number of components, together with individuals passing up college for jobs, a smaller variety of graduating highschool college students, and poorer tutorial achievement on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The USG has skilled higher enrollment outcomes than the nation as entire over the previous few years, although this fall the comparability is a bit blended,” Bell informed regents.

The system enrolled 334,000 college students total throughout its 26 establishments, down from 340,000 final fall and an all-time excessive of 341,000 in fall 2020.

Chancellor Sonny Perdue stated the declines trigger “some challenges.” He stated that system officers are inspecting “what can we do to mitigate the demographic challenges, the office challenges” to draw extra college students, together with adults. He stated enrollment is probably going to enhance if the financial system declines.

“These challenges aren’t distinctive to us, it’s nationwide,” Perdue stated. “However I don’t take the excuse that simply because everybody else is affected by it we’re too.”

The variety of graduating highschool seniors is more likely to fall for years starting later within the decade, due to a decline in birthrates.

He stated that the system could also be controlling prices within the 2024 finances that may start in the midst of subsequent yr.

“While you don’t have as a lot gross sales, you’re going to have fewer individuals, and we’re aligning that to the budgets of ’24 in that regard,” Perdue stated.

Eight colleges noticed will increase, 17 noticed decreases, and Dalton State Faculty had flat enrollment. The quickest rising college, each in uncooked numbers and share phrases was Georgia Tech, which added 3.3% extra college students, crossing the 45,000 mark. Two different universities within the high analysis tier additionally grew — the College of Georgia and Augusta College. Georgia State College remained the system’s largest, with almost 52,000 college students, regardless of having 0.6% fewer college students.

That continued the pattern of top-tier colleges thriving whereas enrollment shrank elsewhere. Enrollment at second-tier complete universities fell 3.7% total, whereas the variety of college students at third-tier state universities fell 5.7%. Fourth-tier state schools, the place many college students are in search of two-year levels, stabilized considerably after sharp drops in earlier years, falling 2.4%

Enrollment fell most sharply at Clayton State College, dipping 14.1%. Different colleges that noticed double-digit declines included Savannah State College, down 12.1%; Valdosta State College, down 11.6%; and Atlanta Metropolitan State Faculty, down 10.7%.

Enrollment fell in all 4 undergraduate years, in addition to amongst highschool scholar who have been dual-enrolled in school programs. Graduate enrollment bucked the state and nationwide tendencies, rising 0.2%, however Bell stated graduate enrollment gave the impression to be plateauing after booming throughout the pandemic. A lot of the rise at Georgia Tech and in graduate enrollment total has been pushed by speedy growth of on-line grasp’s levels provided to professionals by Georgia Tech.

The share of white college students within the system continues to fall, right down to 44% this yr, with the share of Hispanic and Asian college students rising. The share of Black college students has remained degree.