May 25, 2021, 12:29 PM
(From The Washington Post) Already bracing for an enrollment crash expected to hit in 2025, higher education got more bad news this week: The U.S. birth rate fell 4% in 2020, marking the lowest number of births since 1979 and the sixth consecutive year of declining birth rates, according to a report released this week by the National Center for Health Statistics. Economists Phillip Levine of Wellesley College and Melissa Kearney of the University of Maryland project an even steeper drop of at least 300,000 fewer births in 2021, thanks to pandemic-related job losses and lockdowns that prevented potential couples from meeting.
Some experts say the decline in U.S. births, coupled with pandemic-related financial stresses, may prompt more colleges to make structural changes which could flatten or lower students’ costs, and make it easier adapt to the needs of older adults and other untapped markets. For example, undergraduate tuition and fees in the fall rose by the lowest percentage in three decades, according to The College Board, and many colleges and universities have announced tuition freezes or reductions for the next academic year.
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