The system is continuing to project that it will be 7% below its state-funded target of 383,680 for resident students during the 2022-23 academic year — that’s more than 25,000 full-time equivalent students. The decreases are due to the effects of the pandemic and long-term declining birth rates. “Should this enrollment decline become sustained it will present a fundamental and significant threat to our missions, to the fundamental viability of our universities and the future of the communities that we serve,” Koester said. In May 2022, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reported undergraduate student enrollment had fallen by more than 1.4 million students or 9.4% since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the center pointed out that the drop was part of a decadelong decline in national enrollment.
