TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Enrollment at Alabama’s public institutions of higher education is up, despite issues with a federal financial aid form last year, according to preliminary data from the Alabama Commission on Higher Education (ACHE).
According to ACHE, 225,981 undergraduate students are enrolled at the state’s public two-year colleges in Fall 2024, up from 216,499 (7.3%) last year. At public four-year colleges, undergraduate enrollment is 137,482, up from 133,933 (2.6.%).
Many students across the country had trouble with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form last year, which saw a series of delays and problems in the rollout for a new form, intended to simplify the process.
There were concerns about the rollout impacting college enrollment. A May 2024 report from the Brookings Institution said that the FAFSA issues would lead to fewer students enrolling in college.
Jim Purcell, ACHE’s executive director, said after the Friday meeting that FAFSA completion was down from around 59% or 60% in 2023 to about 57% this year.
He said it took a lot of effort, and the assistance of Alabama Possible, a Birmingham-based nonprofit that addresses economic prosperity and educational attainment.
Purcell said they are going to expand that program to not just the summer but earlier in the year.
“There’ll be a lot of effort this year, because the FAFSA, again, is delayed until December, so we will really jump start everything as fast as we can,” he said.
Chandra Scott, executive director, wrote in a Friday afternoon email that they will provide assistance to students identified by ACHE as soon as the FAFSA is available. Alabama Possible was selected by the U.S. Department of Education as part of the phased rollout for this year’s form.
At the community college level, approximately 31.9% of undergraduates were high school students in dual enrollment programs. At the four-year college level, around 4.9% is dual enrollment.
“Some of the growth may be just expanding the dual enrollment, which is really just three credit hours,” Purcell said. “It’s not like a full-time equivalent person, which is actually how you fund campuses: full time people.”
Purcell said that one of the pushes for the community college system is to start students early to get into the workforce faster.
“I think it’s important that what they offer is something that is relevant to people that are going to be living in those communities after they graduate,” he said. “And I think there is some effort to do that.”
At the state’s flagship universities, Auburn’s undergraduate enrollment went up 3.8% to 27,929. At the University of Alabama, undergraduate enrollment went up 3.2% to 34,521.
The largest percentage increases for undergraduates at four-year colleges were at Alabama A&M in Huntsville, which saw an 11.1% increase from 5,884 to 6,537; and at the University of West Alabama in Livingston in Sumter County, which increased 12.3%, from 2,401 to 2,696.
The largest percentage decreases for undergraduates at four-year colleges were at University of Alabama Birmingham, with a 3.4% decrease from 12,382 to 11,959, and Troy University with 1.6% decrease from 9,638 to to 9,483.
At two-year institutions, the largest percentage undergraduate increase was at Ingram State Technical College with a 33.3% increase from 727 to 969, while the largest percentage undergraduate decrease was at Lurleen B. Wallace Community, with a 4.3% decrease from 2,141 to 2,048.
Overall, at the undergraduate and graduate level, the state’s public higher education enrollment increased 4.1% from 259,466 to 270,085.
This article originally appeared on Alabama Reflector, an independent, nonprofit news outlet. It appears on FOX54.com under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
