College Enrollment Expected To Slip Over Next Decade

They've focused on boosting enrollment in distance education, increasing transfers and coaxing adults who haven't completed their degree to return to campus.

That's required campuses to change how they do business, providing more advising support for returning adults and working more actively to recruit transfer students and streamline their enrollment.

The early results have been promising. Enrollment was up for both those targeted students and traditional students this fall. But officials know their work is far from over.

"This enrollment shift is not expected to get much better for a long time," said Rosa Redonnett, the chief student affairs officer for the system.

Maine isn't alone. The majority of states are expected to see some decline in the number of high school graduates during the next decade and those declines, coupled with an increasingly price-conscious student body, is already forcing some colleges to discount their tuition, according to two reports released last week.

The Midwest and Northeast are expected to be hit hardest by declining enrollment during the next decade, with the biggest projected declines anticipated in Michigan, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, according to a report by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. That would come after more than 20 years of steady growth in college enrollment across the country.

Colleges can also expect more diverse applicants over time, as the percentage of non-white high school graduates is expected to reach 45 percent by 2020, a 20 percent increase from 2009 levels, according to the report.

"This is a big difference from what colleges and universities have come to expect," said Brian Prescott, director of policy research at the commission and co-author of the report, speaking last week in Washington D.C.