Statewide, Iowa – Enrollment at the three state universities has been holding steady recently, but there are some challenges ahead.
Iowa Board of Regents Associate Academic Officer Jason Pontius says enrollment remains down from the record peak in the fall of 2016.
He says there has been some recovery of the international students.
The enrollment at Iowa State, the University of Iowa and Northern Iowa is about 81 percent undergraduate students, and around 59 percent of those students are Iowa residents. Pontius says one of the issues ahead is a drop in the size of high school classes.
Pontius says the decline is going to likely hit nationally, but it is not evenly distributed.
Pontius says some are calling it an enrollment cliff, but he doesn’t believe it will be that severe.
He says another issue the state schools face are surveys showing more high school graduates going directly into the workforce and bypassing college.
Pontius made his comments during a report to the Board of Regents at their meeting last week.
