Va. college enrollment is bouncing back, while most of the country isn’t

Since the pandemic began, college enrollments have plummeted across the country. But in Virginia, student numbers are recovering.

National college enrollment is down another 1% this year and 6% since before the pandemic, according to newly released data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Due to high tuition fees and a cheap job market, fewer people choose to go to college.

But in Virginia, student enrollment grew less than 1% this year to about 519,000, according to the State Council on Higher Education for Virginia. Reasons for the state’s relative success include the affluence of its residents, a still-growing high school-age population, and the continued emergence of online giant Liberty University in Lynchburg. Virginia is one of 16 states showing growth this year.

SCHEV’s Tom Allison called Virginia’s 0.3 percent enrollment growth a “stabilization.”

“We have excellent institutions that people clearly see value in and worth investing time and money in,” Allison said.

No Virginia college has grown more over the past three years than Liberty, which grew its enrollment by 16% to over 99,000 students. The vast majority of Liberty students participate online.

Even the wealthiest and most prestigious schools in the state have done well. The College of William & Mary grew 9%, Virginia Tech grew 5%, and the University of Virginia grew 2%.

Most historically black universities are also thriving. Virginia State University is up 8% and Virginia Union University is up 17%. Even Virginia community colleges, which have been in decline for 10 years, are up almost 1% this year.

One reason Virginia colleges are doing better than most states is that they never fell that far to begin with. Colleges in the state experienced a 1% decline in 2020, averting disaster.

Virginia residents are relatively affluent and economically less affected by the pandemic than other states, Allison said.

While other states have seen the number of high school-age residents decline, Virginia is still growing. In 2020, Virginia had 87,000 high school seniors, the highest number ever.

The fact that Virginia’s colleges operate independently probably helped, too, Allison said. Every college in Virginia is headed by a president who reports to a visitors’ committee.

Each school could create its own pandemic response plan. Virginia State University kept its campus closed while most other colleges reopened. Other states such as North Carolina and California operate their universities as a single system.

Most states haven’t stabilized like Virginia.

“After two straight years of historically high losses, it’s particularly worrying that the numbers are still falling, particularly among freshmen,” said Doug Shapiro, executive director of the Clearinghouse.

While college enrollment has been declining statewide, Virginia college enrollment has been increasing.