Star Tribune features second in series on higher education enrollment

Star Tribune higher education reporter Ryan Faircloth has been working on a series about how declining enrollment is reshaping higher education. The second story titled “In Minnesota and U.S., colleges fight to recruit shrinking pool of students” has been posted to the Star Tribune website.   

In the story, he writes: “Across Minnesota and the country, colleges are upping their financial aid, launching new programs and stationing more recruiters in other states as they race to recover from the fall in enrollments during the COVID-19 pandemic and brace for an impending decline in the number of high school graduates. Schools here are locked in a recruitment arms race against their in-state counterparts and out-of-state colleges that are increasingly trying to poach Minnesota students.”

“We’re seeing pretty intense competition at the national level,” said Bob McMaster, the University of Minnesota’s vice provost and dean of undergraduate education. “In attracting and enrolling students, you have to have a really good product on the table.”

Read the full story, shared with permission by Ryan Faircloth.