Change is a constant feature in the U.S. and the realm of higher education is not immune to experiencing its various effects. Tune in to a college football game this season and note how many times the announcer will state that a particular player is a transfer from another school. The creation of a transfer portal has made it possible for athletes to have the ability to compete elsewhere by seeking to be scooped up by a coach at another institution. During a five-year stay in college, it soon may become commonplace for an athlete to play for four different schools. Another trend that has been in progress for the past two decades is referred to as the “The Great Student Swap.” Related to a skyrocketing increase in tuition fees across the land, students have accumulated $1.7 trillion in debt to meet the costs of participating in higher education. The growth in costs has been accompanied by an expansion in out-of-state enrollment in public universities. As noted in a report from the Brookings Institution that was issued in September 2022, out-of-state tuition can be twice as high as in-state prices, driving up student debt and university tuition revenue.
Not only has the sticker tuition price difference between in- and out-of-state schools been rising, the share of in-state students is falling. A study referred to in the report argues that many state flagship universities increasingly are unrepresentative of the socioeconomic and racial diversity of the state they serve, in large part because they enroll a growing number of affluent, out-of-state students. This systematic preference for wealth, at times independent of merit, reveals how incentives created by policy decisions and unstable funding streams can distort the enrollment priorities of public universities, with powerful and far-reaching consequences for socioeconomic and racial equality in college access.
COVID-19 Transfer, Mobility, And Progress
Following widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines in early 2021, officials at many institutions hoped there would be a return to pre-pandemic normalcy in pandemic year 2. Instead, the pandemic continued to have an impact on transfer pathways, in some cases, at accelerated rates. The COVID-19 Transfer, Mobility, and Progress report series of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center aims to identify the ways in which the COVID pandemic is changing transfer pathways across higher education. The pandemic’s impacts on transfer enrollment shifted as the pandemic progressed, with transfer pathways and student groups showing diverging patterns over time. The ninth issue in the series became available in September 2022. It summarizes notable changes in transfer enrollment and persistence post-transfer over a two-year period, with results broken out by academic year, student characteristics, and institution type and selectivity. Higher education experienced a total two-year loss of 296,200 transfer students, or 13.5% (nearly 200,000 fewer, or -9.1%, in year 1 and an additional -97,200, or -4.9%, in year 2).
All transfer pathways experienced the impact. Transfer pathways into two-year institutions (reverse transfer and two-year lateral transfer) experienced double digit rate declines (-21.3% or -113,300 in lateral transfer; -18.0% or -66,900 in reverse transfer). Transfers to four- year institutions also experienced steep declines (-9.7% or -86,000 in upward transfer; -7.6% or -29,900 in lateral transfer). White, Black, and Native American transfer enrollments all declined precipitously over the last two years (-163,100, -16.4%; -54,800, -16.4%; -3,100, -15.6%, respectively). The pandemic also put older learners at higher risk of staying out of higher education. Older transfer students (21 or older) declined at more than double the rate of younger students (-16.2% vs -7.2%), and accounted for more than 85% of all transfer declines since the pandemic began (-251K out of -296K).
Proposed Rule On Nondiscrimination On The Basis Of Sex In Education Programs
The deadline for submitting comments on a proposed rule to amend regulations implementing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 closed on September 12, 2022. More than 235,000 were submitted. The Department of Education will review them before releasing a final set of regulations.