The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
Declining birth rates, rising tuition costs, student loan debt and lack of confidence in higher education are just some of the challenges facing Ohio colleges and universities.
Notre Dame College, a private Roman Catholic college near Cleveland, closed last year after more than 100 years of educating students.
The college said declining enrollment, rising costs, and debt caused their board of trustees to decide to close the private school.
Central State University — Ohio’s only public Historically Black University — is currently under fiscal watch by the state. The HBCU will adopt a financial recovery plan “that will outline a path toward financial stabilization with a goal of ending the fiscal watch within three years,” according to Ohio Department of Higher Education.
“Confidence in higher education has declined,” said Ohio Department of Higher Education Chancellor Mike Duffey. “It really comes down to, are students and families getting what they thought that they were getting out of it?”
A little more than half of Americans surveyed don’t think getting a four-year degree is worth the cost, according to a 2023 survey from the Wall Street Journal.
“People are making a choice not to go into higher education, shifting student preferences on degrees,” Duffey said.
Tuition at a four-year higher ed institution jumped 36.7% from 2010 to 2023 and the average federal student loan debt balance is $37,853, according to the Education Data Initiative.
Most of the people who go to college are 18-24 years old and that age group is declining, said Todd Jones, president and general counsel of the Association of Independent Colleges & Universities of Ohio.
“When you look backward in time, the recession of 2008-2010 reduced the number of people who had kids, and that effect is being felt in higher education,” he said.
The national birth rate fell nearly 23% from 2007 to 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This means the traditional college-age population will start dwindling this year through 2037, according to data from the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education.
Undergraduate college enrollment has declined since 2010 — dropping an average rate of 1.6% a year from 2011-2021, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Enrollment
Overall enrollment at Ohio’s university main campuses, regional campuses and community colleges has declined from fall 2014 to fall 2023, according to ODHE data.
Ohio community colleges enrolled 178,668 students in fall 2014, but enrollment dropped to 158,321 in fall 2023 — an 11.3% decrease.
University main campus enrollment was 288,699 in fall 2014, but it slumped to 262,484 in fall 2023 — a 9% decrease.
Even university regional campuses have seen a decline — going from 58,951 in fall 2014 to 56,224 in fall 2023 — a 4.6% decrease.
But Duffey says enrollment data only tells so much of the story.
“You can’t just look at the enrollment numbers and say, ‘Oh, they’re all offering the same things,” he said. “In some cases, the declines are strategic. It’s hard to believe that, but if you have programs where you have enrollment, but you’re actually losing money in that program, because the cost of that program is more than the revenue in that program, some colleges are choosing to shutter those programs.”
Some public university main campuses saw jumps in enrollment during that time.
Ohio State University had a 2.6% increase in enrollment from fall 2014 to fall 2023, according to ODHE data. Bowling Green State University saw a 3.1% enrollment increase during that same time.
However, the University of Akron has seen their enrollment decrease 46.5% from fall 2014 to fall 2023, according to ODHE.
Wright State University’s enrollment dropped 39.8% from fall 2014 to fall 2023 and Kent State University’s enrollment went down 11% during that span of time, according to ODHE.
Some institutions are currently reviewing their programs — especially ones with only a few students — and seeing if it can be rolled into another program, Duffey said.
“Institutions really just have to be nimble, and they have to adapt,” he said. “They’re going to have to stand up new programs. They’re going to expand programs that have been relatively small. At the same time, they’ve got other programs that are becoming smaller, and they’ve got to deal with that as well.”
Independent colleges
Independent colleges can pick the number of students they want since the number of college applicants greatly exceeds the number of spots available and some have seen enrollment growth, Jones said.
Cedarville University’s enrollment went up 48.6% from 2014 to 2023 and Case Western Reserve University enrollment increased 25.9% during that same time period, according to AICUO data.
“Some institutions create new graduate programs that are in high demand, or they create undergraduate programs that gain national recognition,” Jones said. “Or they start new undergraduate programs that are seen as being important and that attracts more students and allows you to fight off the difficulties of demographic demand or the demographic decline.”
Some independent schools, however, saw enrollment declines. Capital University saw a 36.2% enrollment decrease from 2014 to 2023, Wittenberg University saw a 33.8% drop, and Baldwin Wallace University saw a 16.4% enrollment decline, according to AICUO data.
Bluffton University is merging operations with the University of Findlay, meaning it will become one higher education institution on two campuses located about 20 minutes apart. The merger is expected to be complete by the fall and Bluffton University will become Bluffton College.
Campuses closures
Notre Dame College closed this past spring. The South Euclid college had 2,055 students in 2014 and only 1,329 in 2022, according to AICUO.
Urbana University closed in 2020 after years of low enrollment and challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The university had 1,717 students in 2014 and only 513 in 2018, according to AICUO.
Union Institute and University, the state’s only Hispanic-serving institution, closed this past summer. The university had 1,085 students in 2014 and only 481 in 2022, according to AICUO.
Eastern Gateway Community College closed on Oct. 31 after financial and legal troubles in recent years.
