Dive Brief:
- Just seven state flagships did not enroll fewer in-state students in 2014 than they did in 2004, and the University of Alabama shows the greatest swing, moving from 72% of freshmen coming from in-state in 2004 to just 36% 10 years later.
- The Washington Post reports there were declines of 20% or higher in the portion of in-state residents making up the freshman classes at UC-Berkeley, UCLA, Idaho State University, and the flagship institutions in South Carolina, Missouri, Oregon, and Arkansas.
- The change in demographics is based largely on financial needs at public institutions, which can get higher tuition revenue from out-of-state students, making it worth their while to offer generous financial aid packages to lure them.
Dive Insight:
The balance between in- and out-of-state students on public college campuses has created strain in state legislatures, which allocate higher education funding. The argument is that public colleges were created to serve the residents of the state and if they recruit out-of-staters, they are going against their original missions. But with significant disinvestment by these legislatures, many colleges have felt they have no choice. And flagships have traditionally been more diverse campuses that pull elite students from across the country, giving them a strong platform from which to increase out-of-state enrollment.
In this context, higher ed spending is on the upswing, albeit slowly, and some state colleges have made fresh commitments to their in-state populations, including California. Wisconsin, on the other hand, approved a waiver for UW-Madison that will allow it to accept as many out-of-state students as it wants for the next four years, lifting a cap at 27.5% of the total campus student population.