California fall undergraduate enrollment declines have slowed, but still ‘troubling’
By Sarah Fishen Sarah Fishen
November 20, 2017
Despite a slow down in the enrollment trend for California’s largest university system over the past year, the University of California and four of its six residential colleges are still experiencing enrollment declines for the first time since 2010, according to the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley.
UC President Janet Napolitano announced on Oct. 19 that for the first time since 2012, enrollment declined in fiscal 2017 – the second year of the state’s budget cuts to higher education.
But the decline is still “troubling,” according to the UC Office of the President.
And the office’s figures show the enrollment trend for the schools in the system has slowed since 2012, just as it was before Napolitano took over at the presidency in 2011.
The latest figures, released today by the UC Office of the President, show the decline in overall undergraduate enrollment – which accounts for the state’s largest university system, UC and six of the system’s 11 residential colleges – slowed to 9.3 percent in fall 2017 from 10.1 percent in fall 2015.
The decline was slight as the statewide undergraduate enrollment grew by 1.9 percent last fall – the strongest growth in six years.
But the latest enrollment figures show the overall enrollment declines in the seven-campus university system are still “quite troubling” and could continue to slow the system’s performance, according to an internal UC analysis on the data.
The data show overall enrollment at UCLA fell by 1.6 percent – the first year-over-year decline since 2009 – and enrollment at the University of Southern California dropped by 1.5 percent, the first decrease since 2012.
The enrollment slowdown at USC was offset by an increase in enrollment at UC Davis in the fall of 2016. The enrollment decline at UC Riverside was the smallest in the UC system since 2010, according to the Office of the President analysis.
Meanwhile, enrollment at UC Santa Barbara increased to 24,907 from 24,788 the previous fall, the biggest increase in the system in six years.
But enrollment at UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC Merced and UC Merced-