PHILADELPHIA — Enrollment in Pennsylvania's state universities has dropped again, but officials are focusing on what they say is a bright spot: The number of freshmen is up for the first time since 2009.
Final numbers won't be available until a little later this month, but Daniel Greenstein, chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, said it appears first-year enrollment has increased somewhere between 5% and 7%. Current projections show freshmen at about 15,600, up about 1,000 students, he said.
However, it looks like overall enrollment will slide again by about 4.5% to 5.5%, Greenstein said, putting the system at around 84,000 total students. Part of the reason for the decrease is that graduate enrollments have dropped, he said, and smaller, upper-level classes impacted by the pandemic are still moving through the system.
