Economy
Why Fewer Students in College Is Good for the Economy
There were nearly half a million fewer people enrolled in higher education in 2012, and that's a good sign.
Across the country, higher education enrollment is plummeting. There were nearly half a million fewer students enrolled in college and graduate school in fall 2012 than there were a year earlier, according to a new Census release. That decline is all the more startling when you consider this: between 2006 and 2011, graduate and undergraduate enrollment grew by 3.2 million. The biggest decline, by far, came from students over 25. Their enrollment fell by 419,000; younger students dropped by 48,000.
The reason? The recovering economy, according to Terry Hartle, senior vice president at the American Council on Education.