Dive Brief:
- The University of Iowa has expanded its recruitment of Iowa residents, offering greater financial aid to entice more students and stave off a threatened funding cut from the state board of regents.
- Inside Higher Ed reports the number of high school graduates in Iowa will, at best, remain flat in coming years — but it might decline, creating more competition among schools in the state.
- Some private colleges have already begun to see enrollment declines, in part because the university stepped up a local recruitment game it had been neglecting in prior years.
Dive Insight:
The University of Iowa was one of many public universities across the country that looked to increase out-of-state enrollment as a strategy to boost tuition revenue in the face of shrinking state funding. The University of California system has gotten a great deal of attention for this practice. Private schools in Iowa have been particularly harsh critics of the board of regents’ mandate, even if it didn’t come with funding changes this year, because they say it ignores the local market. Regents, however, maintain the local recruitment push will at least increase access to a more affordable education, if not increasing access overall.