College and University Enrollment Decline in USA

[dado potato]

I believe that higher education is a viable means of upward social mobility... as well as an accelerant in a process of lifelong learning.

I want my grandchildren to be able to succeed in higher education without taking on student loans they will be unable to repay... so I contribute to 529 College Savings Plans for them.

But I read about declining enrollment in Washington State: "more men than women seem to think they can make it without college."

And I read about colleges closing, perhaps because they may not have attracted sufficient endowment contributions.

http://www.highereddive.com/news/how-many-colleges-and-universities-have-closed-since-2016/539379

Does the USA have a long-term problem in the decline in enrollment?

What should parents and grandparents do in the best interests of the upcoming generation of students?

[Yppej]

Higher education is a bubble.

[razz]

Part of the cost of universities/colleges was covered by international students but as their local higher learning centres have progressed, those international students are now estaying h0me

[iris lilies]

I believe that higher education is a viable means of upward social mobility... as well as an accelerant in a process of lifelong learning.

I want my grandchildren to be able to succeed in higher education without taking on student loans they will be unable to repay... so I contribute to 529 College Savings Plans for them.

But I read about declining enrollment in Washington State: "more men than women seem to think they can make it without college."

And I read about colleges closing, perhaps because they may not have attracted sufficient endowment contributions.

http://www.highereddive.com/news/how-many-colleges-and-universities-have-closed-since-2016/539379

Does the USA have a long-term problem in the decline in enrollment?

What should parents and grandparents do in the best interests of the upcoming generation of students?

Specifically, why is a “decline in long term enrollment” a problem as you see it? I don’t think it’s a problem. Perhaps people are not going to college now because they wised up about the cost of it and what it will really do for them. That would be true for some people.

I guess I look at college enrollment in a very simplistic and market driven way. And if some colleges aren’t viable, they need to close. That is true for some private schools at the K through 12 level as well. If the supply exceeds the demand it’s only logical that these institutions close, or downsize.

[Tybee]

I would let them sort it out themselves. They can always go to college later. I give my grandchildren money via ugma and not a 529 because they can always find a way to pay for college. I'm trying to help with a house downpayment.

I wish I had not stressed college to my youngest but instead tried to help him find a trade school. He would have done much better there. He dropped out of college and I doubt he will ever go back.
Two finished college and it does not seem to have opened many doors for them, but I guess they should have selected diffferent colleges and different majors.

[LDAHL]

I think we need to look at alternative delivery systems to the traditional model that can keep the good things about education (skills development, learning for it’s own sake, research, etc.) while eliminating the bad things (bloated and expensive bureaucracy, mindless political conformity, economically non viable debt loads, etc.). Are we really well served by an academic elite sitting atop a sort of sharecropper class of adjuncts, as fearful of the mobs as eighteenth century French aristocrats?