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The Number of Students Taking Time off From College Doubled Due to Coronavirus
By Charlotte West
July 1, 2020
On March 12, 2020 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, students have been asked
to move out of their dorms by March 15 due to the coronavirus risk.
Getty Images
A new report shows that the coronavirus pandemic did not have a
significant impact on college students’ enrollment status during the
spring term. Even after most colleges and universities switched to
remote instruction in March, students’ withdrawal and shift from
full-time to part-time were largely consistent with previous years,
according to data published today from the National Student
Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC).
But while overall enrollment patterns remained more or less the same,
there was an increase in the number of students who requested a leave
of absence, particularly among Black and Hispanic students. In
addition, the number of new enrollments reported in April 2020 was down
significantly compared to 2018 and 2019.
Doug Shapiro, executive director of the research center, said that
while the study’s overall findings showed that most college students
were able to stay in school, these are early signs that point to a
concerning impact on minority students. Shapiro stressed that the
findings for leaves of absence are preliminary and apply to a small
number of students.
“We thought we would see more withdrawals and we were surprised that we
didn’t see more students dropping classes, which would have caused a
reduction in status to part time or even lower,” he said.
Several surveys have suggested enrollment may drop this fall, as
students stay home for financial reasons or because they don’t want a
diminished college experience if coronavirus forces most courses
online. Yet the Clearinghouse report is the first national look at how
COVID-19 has actually affected enrollment patterns.
Overall, leaves of absence doubled from previous years. Approximately
6,400 students took a leave of absence in spring term out of a total of
more than 17 million. Black and Hispanic students saw an increase of
206% and 287%, respectively, compared to a 70% increase for white
students and 59% for Asian students. The number of reported leaves of
absence were particularly high in Florida, California, Massachusetts
and New York.
Shapiro said that the leave of absence data was the only place the
research team saw any dramatic difference by race and ethnicity. The
findings track with national data that Black and Hispanic communities
have been hit hardest by COVID-19.
Students who take formal leaves of absence generally submit a request
to their institution to take time off but still intend to re-enroll in
a future academic term. That’s different from a withdrawal, which
indicates a student doesn’t plan to immediately re-enroll. As long as a
student on leave returns within 6 months, they will not have to start
repaying student loans.
The researchers also looked at the number of new enrollments in the
spring. In 2018 and 2019, approximately 90,000 new enrollments were
reported with a start date in April. In 2020, the number had fallen by
more than 80% to 17,000. Those data largely capture students who enroll
at institutions on the quarter system, as well online institutions that
have rolling start dates.
Normally during an economic downturn, postsecondary enrollment tends to
go up in tandem with unemployment. If anything, Shapiro said he
expected to see an increase in new enrollments, although it usually
takes several months to see the effect. “We would have been surprised
to have seen that happen so quickly…, but we certainly didn’t expect it
to go in completely the opposite direction,” he said.
The report comes amid much speculation about the fall semester. A
sizable drop in the number of students enrolling could set back college
completion goals and increase the likelihood of significant financial
woes among some colleges. Some studies have even suggested that certain
institutions might see as much as a 20% enrollment drop. But Shapiro
cautioned that the new analysis doesn’t provide much indication of what
enrollment might look like in the fall.
“What happened in the spring was such a disruption,” Shapiro said. “I
think the fall is a whole different animal in the sense that you’ve got
this interplay of a long period of planning and preparation and people
trying to figure out what’s happening and making alternative plans as
opposed to just reacting in the moment to what seems like a completely
unprecedented crisis.”
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