Three candidates are in the running for Portland Community College president.

Portland Community College and several other community colleges saw an increase in student enrollment this fall term compared to last year.

Bryan M. Vance / OPB

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Despite federal attacks on universities, growing tuition costs and uncertain economic times, more Oregonians are choosing to head back to school to pursue a higher education.

Fall headcount enrollment is up by an average of 1.5% across the state’s seven public universities and 17 community colleges compared to last year, according to data released by the Higher Education Coordinating Commission Thursday. Oregon’s colleges and universities also saw more students enrolling in classes full-time this school year.

Community colleges buoy the state’s higher education landscape. These schools saw a 3.7% increase in enrollment this fall.

“Energy is high across all of our campuses,” said Oregon Community College Association Executive Director Abby Lee. “Students are coming back.”

More than half of the state’s community colleges saw enrollment gains, with Portland, Linn-Benton and Blue Mountain leading the way.

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Colleges are seeing more interest in short-term career technical education programs, Lee said. These programs offer students certificates or associate degrees that can lead to high-demand jobs more quickly than a four-year education at a university.

“In Oregon, there’s a lot of retraining happening and students are choosing community colleges to do that training,” Lee said.

The picture is not as rosy among Oregon’s public universities, where enrollment was relatively stable, falling by 0.6% compared to 2024. Just three schools are reporting more students this year: Oregon State University, Oregon Institute of Technology and Southern Oregon University.

OSU’s rapid growth in students from the past few years, largely driven by increased enrollment in its online education offerings, appears to be slowing down. Oregon State welcomed fewer than 400 more students compared to last year, an increase of less than 1%. OSU saw gains more than double that since 2021.

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Portland State University’s downward enrollment trend is continuing this year. But university officials say they are glad to see enrollment climbing at community colleges. Transfer students from the two-year institutions made up 60% of PSU’s enrollment in the 2021-22 academic year.

“PSU’s enrollment of Oregon transfer students increased 4.9% this year,” said Portland State spokesperson Katy Swordfisk. “We are heartened to see enrollment recovering at our partner community colleges and see this increase as the start of a growing trend.”

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Amid tightened visa requirements for international students, the number of students from outside the U.S. studying at Oregon’s public universities is down by about 8%.

Overall, this year’s numbers continue a positive trend that’s slowly closing the steep drop in college students caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, said HECC Office of Research and Data Director Amy Cox.

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“The continued increase in enrollment numbers at the colleges is really gratifying and really great to see,” Cox said. “But it’s not necessarily surprising. We would expect these numbers to rise because the drop that occurred during the pandemic was so unusual.”

University enrollment is nearing full recovery and is about 2 percentage points — or roughly 1,000 students — lower than pre-pandemic levels. Community colleges, which experienced a 23% decline in students in 2020, are still working to close the gap. These institutions are about 17,000 students short of 2019 enrollment figures.

The good news comes as higher education institutions across the nation face unprecedented challenges from the federal government. At the direction of the Trump administration, federal agencies have cut off or paused billions of dollars in grants to colleges and universities, made demands aimed at admissions offices and opened civil rights investigations at dozens of institutions.

And at the state level, Oregonians considering a higher education must contend with the rising costs that come with a college degree. The state’s universities, and some colleges, have been steadily increasing tuition since 2015 to make up for declining enrollment, a surge in personnel expenses and flattening state support.

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More tuition hikes could be coming next school year. In a presentation earlier this week, higher ed leaders laid out the tuition increases and financial aid cuts they might have to make under potential budget cut scenarios.

Cox acknowledges that there are a lot of headwinds working against institutions and students right now.

“But we did not see a substantial impact on enrollment from those headwinds,” Cox said. “My hope is that students and families are understanding the long term stability that comes from postsecondary education and training — whether that’s a career technical certificate, a two-year degree or a four-year degree.”