Some students received a Covid test kit before the start of the school year, others had to stay confined for two weeks in their room before being able to attend the first classes. All were urged, often in vain, to avoid parties or gatherings in slept (” residential homes “). And these are among the luckiest. This fall, less than a third of American campuses have bet on face-to-face teaching. The start of the academic year has often been chaotic, alternating opening and closing depending on the number of students infected with the coronavirus.
For the majority of students, deprived of the community life typical of American campuses, the fall semester therefore takes place at a distance, without access to laboratories, libraries or sports activities. A handful of young Americans have tried to escape this situation by going to study abroad, like these students from Johns-Hopkins University who joined the Italian campus of the prestigious university in Bologna, where the courses, for the moment, are provided in person.
In this uncertain environment, many feared a collapse in enrollment at some 3,000 American universities, which each year have nearly 20 million students. The actual drop is less pronounced than expected. According to the latest data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, the number of students at all levels fell by 3% between 2019 and 2020. But the crisis is hitting first-year students hard, whose enrollments are down 16 %.
Disaffection of “community colleges”
The long-term effects of these trends on the educational level of the country and the lasting changes in learning methods are so far difficult to assess. But they lead university officials to question their economic model. “American higher education is going through an existential crisis”, estimates the American Council on Education (ACE), which brings together the actors of higher education, in a letter sent on October 19 to elected officials of Congress.
Universities, already affected in recent years by a drop in enrollment and a decrease in public funding, are not all affected in the same way. The community colleges, these non-selective local establishments and much cheaper than universities, register the greatest disaffection, with an overall drop in enrollment of 9%, a figure which rises to 23% for first-year registrations. “This trend is worrying because, in times of crisis, community colleges are usually the ones who do the best, notes Sarah Spreitzer, one of ACE’s directors. We hope the kids take a year off, and come back next year. “
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