Enrollment Growth Continues, Bolstered by Short-Term Credentials — from insidehighered.com by Johanna Alonso
Enrollment is up across the board this fall, except for graduate student enrollment, which remained stagnant. The biggest increase was among those pursuing short-term credentials, followed by those earning associate degrees.
College enrollment continued to grow this fall, increasing by 2 percent compared to fall 2024, according to preliminary fall data released by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
The biggest gains came from students studying for short-term credentials, whose ranks increased 6.6 percent, while the number of students enrolled in associate and bachelor’s degree programs rose 3.1 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively. Enrollment also grew faster at community colleges, which experienced a 4 percent increase, than at public (1.9 percent) and private (0.9 percent) four-year institutions.
Total graduate enrollment was stagnant, however, and the number of master’s students actually decreased by 0.6 percent.
Speaking of higher education, also see:
OPINION: Too many college graduates are stranded before their careers can even begin. We can’t let that happen — from hechingerreport.org by Bruno V. Manno
This fall, some 19 million undergraduates returned to U.S. campuses with a long-held expectation: Graduate, land an entry-level job, climb the career ladder. That formula is breaking down.
Once reliable gateway jobs for college graduates in industries like finance, consulting and journalism have tightened requirements. Many entry-level job postings that previously provided initial working experience for college graduates now require two to three years of prior experience, while AI, a recent analysis concluded, “snaps up good entry-level tasks,” especially routine work like drafting memos, preparing spreadsheets and summarizing research.
Without these proving grounds, new hires lose chances to build skills by doing. And the demand for work experience that potential workers don’t have creates an experience gap for new job seekers. Once stepping-stones, entry-level positions increasingly resemble mid-career jobs.