SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - While fall enrollment in higher education dropped nationally, it held steady in Illinois, according to the Illinois Board of Higher Education.
Overall enrollment increased by 0.2 percent (417 students) compared to the fall of 2019. There are 182,586 students enrolled in Illinois public universities in the fall of 2020.
Nationally, high education enrollment dropped by 1.8 percent compared to 2019, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
“I am extremely proud of the resiliency of our students, our institutions, their leadership and faculty who all worked hard to make this fall reopening as successful as possible," said IBHE Chair John Atkinson. "There was talk over the summer that college enrollments could be down 25 percent across the nation, and Illinois has proven that its students continue to stay the course. Enrollment in our public universities remained largely steady, which is a reflection of both Governor Pritzker’s continued commitment to higher education funding and the planning and preparation of the IBHE Reopening Committee working with our public, private and community college leaders to reopen safely to students."
Illinois had undergraduate enrollment by headcount slightly drop by 1 percent (1,345 students) for a total of 129,512 students. At the same time, graduate enrollment went up by 3.4 percent (1,762 students) over the fall of 2019. In national data, undergraduate public university enrollment was down by close to 2 percent and graduate enrollment went up by 3.6 percent.
The number of Black students rolled went up by 0.6 percent from 2019. Additionally, Latinx student enrollment rose by 6.1 percent.
“This is the first year we have looked at our early enrollment data through an equity lens. Illinois public universities beat national trends, increasing enrollment for Black and Latinx students. We were very deliberate about investing in supports for our most vulnerable students,” said IBHE Director Ginger Ostro. “With $30 million in federal funds provided for institutions through Governor JB Pritzker’s Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund, private funding to provide emergency grants to students, creating a drive-up Wi-Fi hotspot map, and launching a public education campaign, 'Stay the Course,' everything we did since March was focused on keeping students on track to their degree.”
See numbers for each public university and more data in the PDF document attached to this story.
