Despite a reported Oregon University System enrollment slowdown, the state’s universities overall enrollment numbers are actually at an all-time high, OUS Director of Institutional Research Bob Kieran said.
While enrollment has seen some increases since the 2005-06 school year, the overall growth, at 0.14 percent, is far less than the 10-year average annual growth of 2.89 percent, according to a recent fact sheet put out by OUS. The current enrollment of 81,002 students is the highest ever, but represents a smaller growth than OUS had projected, Kieran said.
“We had projected about a 1.8 percent increase in head count and it’s not even at a tenth of a percent,” he said.
Kieran said OUS has seen a decline in the number of undergraduate students while the graduate class size has grown, somewhat of a mixed blessing for the system.
“It’s not as good because we want to make sure that high school graduates get their opportunity at higher education,” Kieran said. “It’s good because the graduate programs are increasing in size, attracting non-residents as well as residents, which will lead to an economic impact for the state.”
Changes in the work force and more commitment from the private sector to use the research being done in graduate schools are just two of the factors that could be contributing to the growth in graduate class size, he said.
“I think we’re seeing somewhat of a change in Oregon’s economy along with the world economy view, and people are concerned that we’re loosing the middle family-wage jobs and that leaves the choice of service sector type jobs, or jobs that require professional level credentials, that will increase earning and increase job opportunities for the students that go on to graduate school,” he said.
Kieran said that Gov. Ted Kulongoski and the current OUS board are committed to establishing a “tighter connection” between higher education and the private sector. In the past, faculty who develop research with potential to “reach market” have had to work to market their research themselves but now there is a push to make that process easier.
“Before, faculty were pretty much on their own but there wasn’t a real good connection, and that is improving by leaps and bounds,” Kieran said.
Because Oregon’s 17 community colleges provide such a wide variety of programs and courses, there is not much data comparable to that of the OUS, said Amanda Richards, policy and research analyst for the Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development.
Richards said her department recently received its “fall fourth week” enrollment data, which is collected during the fourth week of the school year after students have had a chance to come in and get settled.
Community colleges saw a 1.1 percent decrease in overall full-time equivalent (FTE) students in the fourth week of 2006-07.
The most comparable number between the community college enrollment and the OUS data is the number of “lower division collegiate” FTE students – that is, students taking 100 and 200 level courses in subjects such as English and history similar to those taught at universities, Richards said. The number of students in these courses is “almost entirely flat,” with a 0.2 percent decline from last year, she said.
Community colleges have also seen a 6.9 percent decline in the number of FTE students enrolled in “professional technical programs,” but Richards said there is nothing in these programs comparable to what is offered by the OUS.
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