College Enrollment Increases Again, Now Approaches Pre-Pandemic Level

Forbes

22-05-2025

Total college enrollment increased again this spring to an estimated 18.4 million students.
The nation's colleges and universities received good news on the enrollment front today.
Total college enrollment grew by 3.2% this spring compared to spring 2024 and now stands at about 18.4 million students nationally, just .9% less than the pre-pandemic level of spring, 2020. This year's gain is equivalent to about 562,000 students.
The latest numbers are contained in the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center's Current Term Enrollment Estimates Spring 2025 report. Undergraduate enrollment grew 3.5%, reaching 15.3 million, which is about 2.4% (378,000 students) fewer than the pre-pandemic level.
Enrollment in graduate programs increased 1.5% (46,000 more students) compared to last year. Graduate enrollment now totals slightly more than 3.1 million, 7.2% higher than in 2020. That cumulative gain represents 209,000 more graduate students than the pre-pandemic number.
While undergraduate enrollment increased across all higher education sectors, community colleges experienced the largest growth at 5.4%, or 288,000 more students, compared to last spring.
Undergraduate enrollment increased 3.3% at private for-profit schools, 2.7% at public, four-year institutions, and 1.9% at nonprofit, private colleges. Historically Black Colleges and Universities enjoyed very positive numbers, with undergraduate enrollment increasing by 4.6%.
Undergraduate certificate program enrollment increased by 4.8%, propelling it to a 20% higher level than in 2020. But other types of degrees increased as well, with enrollments in associate degree programs growing by 6.3% and bachelor's programs up 2.1%.
Institutions focused on vocational/trade programs saw particularly strong gains. High vocational public two-year schools grew enrollment by 11.7%, or 91,000 students. Enrollment at these trade-focused institutions has increased almost 20% since the spring of 2020 and now comprises 19.4% of public two-year enrollment.
'This is great news for community colleges, and especially for those with strong vocational programs,' said Doug Shapiro, Executive Director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, in a news release. 'Four-year colleges can also feel good about higher numbers of undergraduates this spring, but their growth rates are slower.'
The number of students enrolled in Master's programs grew by 1.1% over last spring, while doctoral enrollment was up 1.2%, and enrollments in first-professional programs increased 3.2%.
Male and female students showed similar increases in undergraduate enrollment of 3.2% and 3.3% respectively.
All four of the largest racial/ethnic groups saw enrollments grow at the undergraduate level, led by a 10.3 % increase among Black students, followed by gains of 6.7% for Asians, 5.3% for Hispanics, and 1.8% for white students. The increase for white undergraduates was noteworthy because it marked the first time since the pandemic that their spring enrollment has grown.
Enrollment of international undergraduates, on the other hand, was down by almost 12% over last year.
At the graduate level, Black students again had the largest percentage gain at 8.7%, followed by Hispanics (7.1%), Asians (6.2%) and white students (1.1%). International graduate students declined in number, but only by .4%.
Another encouraging sign was that the number of undergraduates in their twenties increased this spring (+3.2% for students 21-24 and +5.9% for students 25-29), beginning a recovery in enrollments after consistent decreases among this age group since the pandemic.
More than half of the total undergraduate gains occurred in two traditionally large fields of study — business majors and health professions, which saw enrollment increases of 4.8% and 6.3%, respectively.
Biological sciences (4.1%), engineering (6.4%), and public administration (7.2%) all posted healthy increases, while the category of liberal arts, general studies, and humanities suffered a 3% decline. Shaprio said that one of the bigger surprises in the latest data is that the number of computer science majors appears to have peaked after several semesters of significant growth.
The enrollment gains come at a crucial time for the nation's colleges and universities as they try to manage the difficult combination of funding cuts, a tumultuous federal policy environment and the upcoming demographic cliff, which will see the number of high school graduates decline steadily over the next decade.
Institutions will try to lock in these solid enrollment gains through renewed efforts to improve student retention, at the same time they pull out all the stops to recruit new students for the upcoming fall semester.
The NSCRC is the research arm of the National Student Clearinghouse. It collaborates with higher education institutions, states, school districts, high schools, and educational organizations to gather accurate longitudinal data that can be used to guide educational policy decisions. NSCRC analyzes data from 3,600 postsecondary institutions, which represented 97% of the nation's postsecondary enrollment in Title IV degree-granting institutions in the U.S., as of 2020.