Decreased Enrollment at Higher Education Institutes

Over the years, we have seen the world become a truly smaller place. With the internet and new technologies connecting every part of the world, the opportunities for further education have become massive.

It is very common for a student to pursue their education abroad, either online or online. With the addition of measures that help in the inclusion of students from different countries, the potential to gain an experiential and truly insightful education has become much more vast.

Despite this, we've seen a trend of declining enrollment rates at higher education institutes - why?

Let's look at this issue from the perspective of three countries.

Taiwan

The steadily decreasing birth rate led to an urgent crisis as 158 universities are forced to face the daunting question of whether to merge or close for good with concerning low enrollment rates. Universities have suffered and tried to grasp any methods to survive from lowering entrance requirements to combining programs and universities.

According to the Minister of Education (MOE) estimates, there are approximately 240,000 college students in Taiwan. Nevertheless, by the year 2028, this number will, unfortunately, decrease to 160,000. Reports claimed that over 52 higher education institutions in Taiwan have faced either a merger or close down crisis in the past few years. College Entrance Examination Enrollment Distribution Committee member Wang Shih-hao also claimed a possibility of lack of enrollment could relate to the high similarities in their programmes including electrical and mechanical machinery, which have had trouble attracting students for the past few decades.

“Although some of these schools had similarly low enrolment numbers between 2008 and 2010, this year’s overall situation is historically the worst faced by the schools to date,” an unnamed committee member expressed their concerns to the Taipei Times. In response to the problem, MOE has worked on recruiting the next generations of immigrants and supporting universities to adjust to the incoming crisis. Universities are also looking forward to recruiting students with a lack of educational resources, “As the number of students decreases, we will increasingly receive students from lower socio-economic backgrounds whose families cannot support them to pursue purely academic degrees,” said Yu, vice president of Taipei’s Shih Hsin University. “These students tend to choose degrees which transition directly into a job.”

USA

Although many students are able to afford college and further education after it, there still exist many that do not have the money or credentials to attend. The pandemic has also caused the numbers to dramatically decline further. Much of this is occurring in the United States for various reasons. One of the biggest is, surprisingly, the low birth rate in the country. As taking care of young children gets more difficult and expensive, adults are choosing not to have many kids. With this, schools don’t have as many children, and fewer move further on because of high expenses. Another big reason is because of the widespread immediate availability of jobs. Lots of jobs can be taken up without background education, so people are jumping to find ways to earn money. However, long-term effects can occur such as poverty, depression, and voting less often. These cause many more issues than for those who actively seek education and work well-paid jobs.

India

India's enrollment in higher education stands at 3.85 crores in 2019-20, as compared to 3.74 crores in 2018-19, registering a growth of 11.36 lakh (3.04 per cent). The number of PhDs has also increased by 60 per cent in the last five years.

College enrollment is increasing in India, as compared to reducing in other countries. With the introduction of online courses and the introduction of new colleges in different towns and cities. The number of Institutions of national importance increased by 80% (from 75 in 2015 to 135 in 2020). India now boasts 993 universities, 39,931 colleges, and 10,725 stand-alone institutions.

There has however been a significant decline in enrollment at primary education institutions, due to the pandemic, rising inflation and several other socio-economic problems. This may affect the enrollment numbers in the near future, significantly reducing or delaying the enrollment of a vast number of students.

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Authors

• Nicole (Wei-Tung), Ling: Taiwan

• Shivika Varshney: USA

• Siya Heda: India