hen 1,492 seniors received their diplomas from the University of Denver in the spring, they represented the university’s largest senior class since World War II. But just four years after those students first arrived on campus, the university’s first-year classes are dropping by hundreds of students, a receding tide that could continue as the number of high school graduates across Colorado and the country ebbs for at least the next 15 years.
Colorado belongs to a pack of 38 states on track to see their numbers of high school graduates repeatedly decrease in what’s widely become known as the “enrollment cliff” or “demographic cliff.” Plummeting birth rates that began during the Great Recession in 2007 sent smaller waves of students through K-12 schools, and they now are graduating and considering higher education.
Leaders across Colorado colleges and universities, however, say they aren’t bracing for an immediate cliff, instead anticipating the drop will play out gradually as more of a downward slope.
Still, the possibility of enrollment losses saddles institutions of higher education with another challenge at a time they are facing a growing list of pressures.
Many schools are racing to keep up with shifting workforce demands and the breakneck speed of artificial intelligence. Universities across the country have scrambled to absorb federal funding cuts for academic research. International students are steering away from U.S. institutions after attempts by the Trump administration to enforce travel bans and reject visas. And some students and families have become more skeptical about the value of a degree with repeated tuition hikes, which Colorado institutions have come to rely on as state funding for higher education has largely stayed stagnant.
Read the full article on The Colorado Sun's website.
