Colleges turn to older students to stem enrollment crisis 

Story at a glance Colleges and universities across the U.S. are trying to enroll more "adult" students as their traditional-aged applicant pool grows ever smaller. Facing a decline in enrollment — and fearing that decline could become a cliff as America's population of fresh high school graduates continues to shrink — schools are offering flexible...

• Colleges and universities are appealing to older students to helpmitigate an upcoming “enrollment cliff.” 

• Enrollment in institutions of higher learning among traditional-aged college students, already in decline, is expected to drop more dramatically beginning in 2025.

• Some colleges are making it easier for older students to return to the classroom by offering remote schedules, financial relief and childcare help.

Colleges and universities across the U.S. are trying to enroll more "adult" students as their traditional-aged applicant pool grows ever smaller. 

Facing a decline in enrollment — and fearing that decline could become a cliff as America's population of fresh high school graduates continues to shrink — schools are offering flexible schedules, financial aid, childcare and specialized advisors in an effort to appeal to adults 25 and older.  

The enrollment drop presents problems both for schools' finances and, more broadly, for the American labor market, as a drop in the number of college graduates could worsen labor shortages in fields such as health care. 

“We have a responsibility to fill that skills gap,” said Pueblo Community College (PCC) President Patricia Erjavec.  

Making it easier for adult learners, especially those with some college education, to return to school is one way to address both issues. The number of American adults with some college experience but no degree grew to 40.4 million in 2023, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.  

“That is an extraordinary number of people that are ripe for returning to higher education,” said National Association for College Admission Counseling CEO Angel Perez.   

Among the schools working to attract such students is Detroit’s Wayne State University, which is appealing to them through debt forgiveness and advising programs.   

The university’s "Warrior Way Back" program offers to completely forgive the debts of former students who owe the school $4,000 or less and have not taken a class there for two years or more, according to the school’s website. 

Wayne State’s President for Academic Student Affairs Ahmed Ezzeddine said this has been helpful for former students who have nearly enough credits to earn their degrees.   

“We’ve had students who have had 100 credits already and are just short four or five classes,” he said. “So, we work with them again on getting that.”   

The university offers re-entry programs for former students who had to drop out and were on academic probation.  

On top of this, it offers special advising for first-time students 25 and older.   

Wayne State’s "Adult Learner Success Team" helps adult learners at the university navigate resources available at the more than 350 academic programs it offers. 

PCC in Colorado has similarly made it a recent priority to attract and bring back former students.   

Administrators at the community college seek out former students who were successful while attending the school but for some reason had to drop out and offer them $2,000 worth of scholarship funds to finish their studies, according to Erjavec. 

Since the community college began offering a "Return to Earn" scholarship in 2016, it has been “extremely successful” in getting former students to come back and earn degrees, Erjavec told The Hill.

“So much so that that has become the model for the state of Colorado,” she added.  

Colorado State University now has a nearly identical program called "Finish What You Started," which was launched using COVID-19 relief funds.   

Under that program, Colorado residents who earned at least one academic credit from the school before dropping out are eligible to receive up to $2,500 worth of scholarship funds a semester to continue their degrees, according to the school’s website.   

PCC, recognizing that many adult learners are limited in when and how often they can attend class because of childcare responsibilities, has also partnered with two local daycare centers to ensure that such students have access to childcare close to campus.   

According to Erjavec, adult learners at the community college are given priority at both of the facilities.   

Erjavec additionally touted PCC’s numerous online classes, which adult learners can take asynchronously, or not at the same time as others, when they need to.   

“They can attend remotely or come in on a face-to-face basis if there's a day when their kids are sick, and they can't make it in or they have transportation issues or whatever,” she said. “They have that flexibility.”  

Spelman College in Atlanta has recently started offering flexible online classes as well to help adult learners get back into the classroom, even if not to work toward a degree at first.   

The college launched a series of online certificate courses in 2022 to help offer value to the country's workforce, according to Watson.  

It also started offering the online courses to help the college generate money to ensure they can continue to provide scholarships to undergraduate students, said Tiffany Watson, associate vice president of eSpelman operations.   

"We were trying to launch something that was quick and that could give a professional upskilling, reskilling and tools to have a big impact, quickly within their work environment," said Watson.  

The certificate programs also allow the college to make enough money to provide scholarships to undergraduate students “who need them so badly,” Watson added.   

When eSpelman started in 2021, there were 49 students taking part in the six certificate programs. Now, Watson said, there are over 2,000.