by Morgan Sweeney
College enrollment declined nationwide by 15 percent from 2010-21 and still hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, though the 2023-24 school year was the first since 2020 that schools saw an average increase in enrollment.
Virginia colleges also experienced these trends but over a slightly shorter period. As of fall 2023, enrollment in the state’s four-year universities was actually higher than it was at its peak in 2012 but much lower for its community colleges.
In 2012, undergraduate enrollment in the commonwealth topped out at 446,840, with 166,379 enrolled in public four-year universities, 194,435 in community colleges, and over 86,000 in private four-year colleges, according to data from the State Council of Higher Education. By 2021, enrollment had fallen about 10 percent, with less than 403,000 total undergraduate enrollment.
By last year’s numbers, however, enrollment has rebounded dramatically since the 2021 low and has surpassed the years immediately preceding the pandemic. Though the nearly 425,800 undergraduates enrolled was still far from the 2012 total, enrollment in four-year institutions exceeded 2012 levels by about 5 percent and 12 percent, respectively. In contrast, community colleges lost about 40,000 students, a decline of about 20 percent.
At the University of Virginia, for example, the number of applicants has doubled since 2012. William & Mary, another of the most selective public universities in the state, has seen its applicant pool grow by about 25 percent.
The growth of the commonwealth’s private four-year universities largely comes from the addition of East Coast Polytechnic Institute to the council’s list of private colleges, which added almost 7,800 students.
Still, over 11,800 more students enrolled in undergraduate programs at private institutions in 2023 than in 2012, and about half of the schools exceeded 2012’s numbers last year. Virginia Beach’s Regent University more than doubled in size, going from 2,433 undergraduates to 6,121, and Liberty University, the second-largest Christian university in the country, gained over 5,000 students then.
By contrast, only three of the state’s 23 community colleges had more incoming undergraduates in 2023 than in 2012. Community colleges that grew are: Germanna Community College – 7,520 to 8,082. Northern Virginia Community College – 51,864 to 53,810. Richard Bland College – 1,540 to 2,595.
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Morgan Sweeney is a staff writer covering Virginia and Maryland for The Center Square. Morgan was an active member of the journalism program as an undergraduate at Hillsdale College and previously freelanced for The Center Square.
Photo “University of Virginia Students” by University of Virginia.
