Adult student enrollment: Growing concentration and more online

The enrollment for adult students is increasingly concentrated in the largest institutions in the non-profit and for-profit sectors. The total enrollment for adult students in the public 4-year and 2-year is larger but it remains widely distributed.

The share of enrollment by adult students by the top 20 institutions in each sector

As a further illustration, the top 5 in the for-profit sector[1] have 38% of the sector. The top 5 in the non-profit sector [2] also have 35% of the enrollment in the sector. Conversely, the top 5 public 4-years [3] have 9% of the sector and the top 5 public 2-years[4] have just 5.4% of the sector.

The trend in adult student enrollment is toward institutions that offer their programs online. The pandemic has accelerated this trend. The data presented here is from the IPEDS data from Fall 2019.

Enrollment by adults in the Clearinghouse reports for Fall 2020 show a growth in enrollment by adults in the each of the 4-year sectors with a drop in the public 2-year sector.

[1] University of Phoenix-Arizona, Grand Canyon University, American Public University System, Ashford University, and Colorado Technical University

[2] Western Governors University, Southern New Hampshire University, Liberty University, Excelsior College, and Brigham Young University-Idaho

[3] University of Maryland Global Campus, Purdue University Global, Arizona State University-Skysong. The University of Texas at Arlington, and Florida International University

[4] Ivy Tech Community College, Houston Community College, Eastern Gateway Community College, East Los Angeles College, Lone Star College System