CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Colleges and universities across the United States and in Iowa are bracing for a major drop-off in students in the coming years.
That’s as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports birthrates have fallen since the 2008 recession.
“We know there are more 18-year-olds in the United States and in Iowa now, than there will be any time in the next at least 17 years and very likely beyond that as well,” Todd Olson, president of Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, said.
Olson said this trend is something he’s been aware of for years. But after enrollment declines in recent years, he said Mount Mercy is seeing record numbers.
“This fall, we actually have brought in the largest class of new undergraduates in Mount Mercy’s history and that’s our new freshman and transfer students, well over 400 of them this year,” Olson said.
But he said this likely won’t last.
The nonprofit, The Hechinger Report, predicts Iowa will see a more than 15% drop in the number of college students between 2012 and 2029.
Some universities are calling this the “enrollment cliff.”
Olson said schools don’t know exactly when this will happen. In the meantime, he said Mount Mercy is preparing.
“That’s a part of what’s valuable for us in coming together with St. Ambrose is that we’ll have some economies of scale, some things that are easier to achieve together,” Olson said. “That’s one of the reasons I believe we’ll see an increasing trend of these combinations.”
He said they’ve also had to make cuts in preparation.
“We don’t like doing any of this, but we have made some reductions in our faculty in some areas where we frankly had more faculty than were absolutely needed.”
Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids told TV9 it’s not seeing an impact of the enrollment cliff yet, but that it is monitoring the numbers.
This trend won’t just impact universities.
Researchers said this could also hurt the economy with fewer graduates to work and live in the state.
“We’re certainly striving to keep our enrollment as strong as we can,” Olson said, “and at the same time, I don’t want to be unrealistic.”
He said they’re working to recruit traditional students and those who haven’t finished their degree.
As universities — and Iowa’s economy — brace for a drop-off in students and the impacts it will have.
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