Alabama’s public colleges and universities are seeing fewer undergraduate students than last year, according to preliminary enrollment data posted to the Alabama Commission on Higher Education website Tuesday.
“The coronavirus pandemic that disrupted spring classes continues to have an impact on higher education,” said Jim Purcell, executive director at ACHE. “Although faced with challenges, our institutions have quickly adapted to hybrid methods of course delivery.”
Undergraduate enrollment is down by 6%, and that means 12,829 fewer students are enrolled than were enrolled in fall of 2019, with two-year colleges bearing the brunt of that decline.
The loss of 2,729 students in Alabama’s four-year institutions was offset by an increase of 3,290 graduate students, resulting in a net increase of 561 students for the four-year institutions, an overall increase of 0.3% from last fall to this fall.
The rise in graduate enrollment represents an 8.6% increase from last year’s 38,384 graduate students to this fall’s 41,674 graduate students.
Purcell said that could be due to a tougher job market for 2020′s college graduates. “Recent graduates may have decided to go on to graduate school while they await an improvement in the job market,” Purcell said.
Community colleges took the biggest hit
The increase in graduate enrollment from one year to the next wasn’t enough to offset the loss of 10,100 students at the two-year colleges, resulting in an overall 3.8% decline in enrollment of all students in Alabama’s public higher education institutions.
Alabama community college system enrollment alone declined by 12.6%, depicting a drop from 79,914 students last fall to 69,814 students this fall. That continues a decline in two-year college enrollment over the past decade. Ten years ago, in the fall of 2011, community colleges had 93,720 students enrolled.
Most of Alabama’s 24 two-year colleges saw double-digit percentage point declines, with Reid State Technical College, located in Evergreen, losing nearly half of its students, a 44% drop, from 493 students last fall to 278 students this fall. That drop makes it the smallest community college in Alabama.
Bishop State Community College in Mobile saw the second-largest decline in enrollment, dropping by 28.2%, from 2,284 students in fall 2019 to 1,641 students this fall.
Drake State Community and Technical College in Huntsville increased enrollment by 14%, making it the big winner among two-year colleges.
Only two other community colleges, Enterprise State and Lawson State, have more students enrolled this year than last year, with each campus seeing a 2.6% increase.
Four-year universities see fewer undergraduates, more graduate students
In Alabama’s four-year universities, there was a 2% decline in undergraduate enrollment, dropping from 135,088 in fall 2019 to 132,359 this fall.
Undergraduate enrollment was down in 11 of 14 public four-year universities, with the University of South Alabama in Mobile seeing the largest percentage point drop of 5.7% from 9,601 students last fall to 9,050 students this fall.
Graduate enrollment is up in 11 universities, with the University of North Alabama showing the highest percentage point gain in graduate student enrollment, rising by 35.8%, from 1,538 to 2,088 graduate students from last fall to this fall.
Both Auburn University at Montgomery and Jacksonville State University saw gains in graduate student enrollment of more than 23% compared to last year.
Only three campuses, Alabama A&M University, the University of Alabama in Huntsville and the University of West Alabama saw declines in graduate enrollment, but that drop was fewer than 30 students on each of those campuses.
The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, the state’s largest four-year public university, had the largest decline in sheer number of undergraduate students, down 1,123 students compared to last fall. An increase of 861 graduate students meant an overall decline in enrollment of 262 students.
Auburn University saw a slight decline in undergraduate enrollment from last fall to this fall, with a drop of 89 students, from 24,594 to 24,505 undergraduates—representing a less than one-half of one percentage point decline. A corresponding increase of 366 graduate students meant Auburn is up 277 students, just under one percentage point, from last fall’s enrollment numbers.
And the news isn’t all bad. According to a press release from ACHE, the University of Alabama in Huntsville reported the largest fall enrollment in their history, rising from 7,989 students last fall to 8,027 students this year.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham had the largest increase in 2020 fall student enrollment in the state since fall 2019, adding 472 students overall—42 undergraduate students and 430 graduate students—a 2% increase.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has pushed for an additional 500,000 skilled workers by 2025, which requires education and training beyond high school. “The dedication of our institutions in continuing to provide a quality educational experience for all students will be a major factor in moving Alabama ahead on the economic spectrum,” said Purcell.
Here are the enrollment numbers for fall 2019 and fall 2020.