Enrollment Woes Hit Both Private and Public Colleges in 2023, S&P Reports

Fiscal 2023 was a “tough year” for private nonprofit colleges amid a “long trend of weakening demand,” S&P Global Ratings said in a Tuesday report. Median full-time equivalent enrollment at private nonprofits fell 0.8% year over year in fiscal 2023, while retention rates hit a five-year low of 82.4%, according to S&P’s analysis. Given demand pressures and rising costs, institutions in the private nonprofit sector saw five times more credit downgrades than upgrades during the fiscal year. In a separate report on public colleges, S&P analysts said the recently ended fiscal year also tested the financial resilience of those institutions, with median full-time equivalent enrollment falling 0.7% for the sector.