Community colleges offering vocational programs witnessed one of the highest numbers of student enrollment in fall 2023, as students opting for higher education showed a slight improvement overall from declines seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
Those community colleges with a focus on vocational programs saw registrations climb 16 percent, an increase of 112,000 students, substantially higher than the rate seen before COVID, when it rose 3.7 percent. Associate degree programs jumped more than 2.2 percent, to 96,000 students.
The interest in vocational education began to see increases in sign-ups going back to three years ago, Jennifer Causey, senior research associate at the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, told Newsweek.
"Since Fall 2021, vocational programs have started to see upticks in enrollments, and specific program families such as Mechanic Repair Technologies grew 11.2 percent this fall alone," she said.
Part of the reason behind this bump may be that students believe that vocational programs give them a better shot at landing a job after graduation.
"It is certainly possible that vocational institutions are growing because they offer programs that prove attractive for students – particularly certificate programs which are shorter in length and have clearer links to employment outcomes," Causey told Newsweek.
Undergraduate enrollment increased by more than 1 percent overall, boosted by all community college sign-ups, which saw a 2.6 percent increase, to nearly 120,000 students.
"This is the first time since the Research Center began tracking enrollment by credential level in 2015 that enrollment in associate programs increased," Clearinghouse said in a statement.
"The number of students in college has finally turned the corner after years of decline," Doug Shapiro, executive director of Clearinghouse, said in a statement. "The small uptick this fall is a welcome change for higher education, but there are still over a million empty seats on campuses today that were filled five years ago."
The rebound in higher-education figures arrive amid a major push by the administration of President Joe Biden to help students with their education debt. The White House tried to cancel up to $20,000 in debt for individuals, but the effort was stymied by the Supreme Court.
The U.S. Department of Education has since attempted different approaches to forgive student debt. Last week, it said that thousands of borrowers were going to have a total of $5 billion worth of loans waived. This group included teachers, nurses and firefighters.
Overall, more than 3.7 million U.S. borrowers have seen $136.6 billion in debt removed from their records, according to the education department.
But that's a small bucket compared to the total number of Americans who owe student loans. More than 43 million Americans are mired in federal student debt and the outstanding loans are estimated to approach $1.65 trillion, according to the Education Data Initiative.
But the prospect of student debt seems not to be deterring students from attending college. More than two-thirds of states saw an increase of undergraduate sign-ups, according to Clearinghouse data.
Nevertheless, enrollment figures were still struggling to fully recover from the declines seen during the pandemic years.
"Associate enrollment remains 14.2 percent below fall 2019 levels, and bachelor's enrollment remains 3.3 percent below 2019," Clearinghouse said in a statement.
Update 1/26/24, 11:42 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Causey.
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