October 04, 2023
'The Enrollment Slope': WNY Colleges Shift Strategies to Attract Students
In the world of higher education, there’s a lot of talk about the “enrollment cliff” forecast for 2025, the year experts say the U.S. population of 18-year-old high school grads takes a plunge, possibly for good.
But some education leaders say that drop is already happening, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, and that it’s not really a cliff. Schools that wait until 2025 to change how they operate may well succumb to that fate, as Buffalo’s Medaille University did, closing its doors on Aug. 31. But several Western New York colleges and universities are currently celebrating enrollment gains thanks to new strategies that don’t rely on the shrinking pool of traditional college students.
But some education leaders say that drop is already happening, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, and that it’s not really a cliff. Schools that wait until 2025 to change how they operate may well succumb to that fate, as Buffalo’s Medaille University did, closing its doors on Aug. 31. But several Western New York colleges and universities are currently celebrating enrollment gains thanks to new strategies that don’t rely on the shrinking pool of traditional college students.