Statewide, Iowa — The Board of Regents is trying to solve the puzzle on what’s causing the drop in student enrollment at the three state universities.
The Board’s Jason Pontious discussed the issue at their meeting earlier this month. He says one mystery is why the number of students going to college after graduating high school started to drop before the pandemic.
Pontious says they reached out to schools looking for answers.
He says the job market appears to be more of a factor.
He says it has been a nationwide issues and some surveys, like one from Gallup asked people how important is a college education today.
Pontious says there appears to be a disconnect when you look at Iowa Workforce Development’s list of the top 50 hot jobs, and the current list shows 96 percent of the top 50 require a bachelor’s degree or higher.
He says more people joining the workforce is a good thing, but he says that provides some headwind as the universities look at making decisions about how to grow going forward.
