U.S. College Enrollment Rises, Government Statistics Indicate

Enrollment at U.S. colleges and universities reached an all-time high this fall with 12.3 million students attending college, preliminary estimates from a Department of Education report idicate.

The figure, a 1.9-per-cent increase over last year, continues a 20-year trend that has more than tripled the number of college students since 1961, Lance Grant, a spokesman for the National Center for Education Statistics, which is preparing the report, said yesterday.

The number of college students has increased by more than three million in the last decade, he added.

Harvard experienced a slight drop in enrollment this year, with about 100 fewer undergraduates this year than last, although enrollment is still about 500 students higher than in 1971, admissions office figures indicate.

The increase in total enrollment nationwide belied predictions by most educators, who had expected a decline this year because of higher tuition at most schools and the federal and state cutbacks in financial aid-grants.

The center found that 42 per cent of 943 colleges and universities surveyed had experienced enrollment drops of 15 per cent or more since 1980, but that large enrollment gains at two-year community and junior colleges offset the trend.

Many more adults are also returning to school as part-time students, making up for the decrease in 18- to 24-year-olds as the last of the baby boom babies pass college age, Grant said.

The increasing numbers of women attending college also account for much of the gain, the center's surveys indicate. In the last ten years, the percentage of women in the college population has grown from 41 per cent to almost 52 per cent.

Grant said he expects enrollment to remain constant over the next few years.

Although Harvard's overall enrollment has remained fairly constant over the last 20 year, the makeup of the student body has changed. In 1961 woman constituted fewer than 20 per cent of the undergraduate population, Eric W. Kurtz '57, director of the Office for Analytic Studies at Harvard, said yesterday, adding that women now make up more than 30 per cent of the student body.

The enrollment of ethnic minorities has also risen over the last 20 years. Harvard has kept detailed records of students ethnic background only since 1977, but in the last 15 years minority enrollment has risen from 3 per cent to 23 per cent, William R. Fitzsimmons '67, acting director of admissions, said recently.