Enrollment at public colleges in Central Massachusetts has dropped substantially, including by more than 10% at Framingham State University and Mount Wachusett Community College, a trend echoed statewide as higher education has been upended by the coronavirus pandemic.
At Mount Wachusett in Gardner, enrollment this fall is down an estimated 14.5% from a year prior, according to data presented to the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education on Tuesday. At Framingham State, the drop was 10.3%. At Worcester State University, it was 7.0%.
Statewide, from community colleges to the University of Massachusetts, enrollment this fall dropped by 7.1%.
“There have been declines all over the map, and for larger and smaller institutions,” said Jonathan Keller, the state’s senior associate commissioner for research and planning.
A concern among state education officials, he said, is that the enrollment drops could be more than a short-term blip attributable to the pandemic. There is a fear, he said, students who aren’t enrolling in college this fall may not in the future, either.
Pandemic-related factors most often cited by students have included personal finances for students, frustration with a lack of campus life, dissatisfaction with distance learning, and increases in child care and parenting responsibilities, Keller said.
Enrollment was generally down the highest among first-year students, indicating general enrollment drops were likely attributable to students choosing not to begin their college careers rather than existing students not returning.
Framingham State’s freshman enrollment dropped this fall by 20.9%. The school is near its lowest enrollment at any point in the past quarter century, according to the state data.
At Mount Wachusett, first-year enrollment this fall is down 26.4%. A few exceptions to first-year declines exist, most notably at Worcester’s Quinsigamond Community College, where freshman enrollment grew by 4.9%.
Enrollment has also been down this fall nationally, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. First-year enrollment nationally is down 16.1% and total undergraduate enrollment is down 4%.
Student numbers were already trending downward in Massachusetts before this fall. Among all state schools, enrollment is now down for seven straight years. UMass enrollment, which did not include the medical school in Worcester, is roughly flat this fall.
The Board of Higher Education expects to have its final fall enrollment data by December.
