Covid-19 & Higher Ed

As reported in InsideHighgerEd.com on October 15, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, issued a report from about 54 percent of postsecondary institutions, or data for 9.2 million students.

Here are the highlights:

“As of Sept. 24, undergraduate enrollment is now 4 percent lower than it was last fall — a 1.5-percentage-point decrease from earlier this semester.”

“Just over 16 percent fewer freshmen have enrolled this fall compared to last year.”

“Community college enrollment has dropped 9.4 percent.”

“Community colleges are also seeing a nearly 23 percent enrollment drop for first-time students.”

Covid-19 has disrupted higher education to a degree unimagined, except by critics of higher education who believe that the financial model supporting higher education is not supportable.

I wrote a book about that in 2017.

Only talk of free university education by Bernie Sanders, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, and other Democrat Party “leaders,” gives hope that predictions of enrollment decline are off the mark.

Even if dying from a Covid-19 infection is low, if you are of college age, reorganizing student living is expensive, and complete renovations will require federal assistance.

At the University of Notre Dame where six members of my family studied, in-class instruction was begun in August. Yesterday, with 37 days remaining in the semester, the University reported that due to increases in Covid-19 infections, the university is returning to a “10-person limit for any student gatherings.”  

With an endowment of $13 billion, the University of Notre Dame will survive until an effective and available vaccine is introduced. I gave an interview recently in which I predicted that in two years, 1,000 colleges will be forced to close.