Wisconsin Technical College System enrollment fell by 13 percent last school year

New data shows Wisconsin’s Technical College System saw its largest enrollment declines in a decade amid the COVID-19 pandemic during the 2020-2021 school year. Some system schools saw headcounts drop between 20 and 32 percent.

Overall, enrollment at the state’s 16 technical colleges fell by 13.2 percent last school year compared to the previous academic year. That’s higher than a national decline of 9.4 percent last fall, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

Headcounts were down at every tech college last school year. Nicolet College, based in Rhinelander, saw the largest decline of 32.8 percent. Southwest Wisconsin Technical College in Fennimore saw the smallest decline at 1.4 percent.

Erika Warning-Meyer, Nicolet College vice president of enrollment and student affairs, said much of the drop was due to cancellations of non-credit bearing continuing education classes and on-site employer training.

“A lot of that takes place in person and due to COVID-19, we did have to pull back on offering those non-credit opportunities that make up a large part of our headcount in our district,” said Warning-Meyer.

She said enrollment was actually up around 1 percent last fall among students taking credit-bearing classes. Warning-Meyer said Nicolet College is working to bolster on-site employee training programs to pre-pandemic levels.

The headcount at Madison College fell by 26.5 percent during the 2020-2021 school year compared to the prior academic year. Tim Casper, executive vice president of student affairs, said last fall was the first time the pandemic directly impacted enrollment.

“Last fall, we had a pretty limited number of opportunities for students to be on campuses to do their learning experiences,” said Casper. “And, you know, that, in part, may have impacted enrollments.”

He also noted students with children had additional challenges that might have caused them to delay their own education and some recent high school graduates might have chosen to work rather than starting classes.

Casper said applications for next spring are up from last year and rivaling pre-pandemic levels.

“People have gotten vaccinated,” said Casper. “People are now eligible for boosters. So, hopefully those things are giving people confidence in, you know, coming to campus if that’s how they prefer to learn.”

Milwaukee Area Technical College saw a 21.1 percent decline in headcount last school year compared with the 2019-2020 academic year. Vice President of College Advancement and External Relations, Laura Bray, told WPR it’s too early to know why potential students chose not to enroll, though enrollments generally fluctuate with the economy.

“Our enrollment declines within the technical college and community College System are, historically, declines when the economy gains strength, which is happening right now,” said Bray.

In light of that, Bray said the college is working to make it easier for people to go to school while working to create more career advancement opportunities. She said there are signs that interest in technical education is increasing in the Milwaukee region. Bray said the number of individuals applying for the MATC Promise program, which provides free tuition, is twice as high as it was last year.

Liz Paulsen, the executive director for marketing and communications at Blackhawk Technical College, based in Janesville, said that while the college saw an overall 12.6 percent enrollment decline during the 2020-2021 school year, enrollment among credit-seeking students was down 4 percent. She said enrollments this fall among students enrolled in credit-bearing classes are up around 12 percent.

“It was a blip for 2020 because of the pandemic,” said Paulson. “And we are extremely optimistic about the future, especially because we are growing our dual enrollment programs with local high schools so students can graduate from high school and already have college credits under their belts.”

While enrollments declined across all student categories during the 2020-2021 school year, enrollment among Black students fell by 17.2 percent. The decline among Asian students was 14.1 percent. Hispanic student enrollment fell by 13.89 percent.

Enrollment declines were greater among males than they were with females during the 2020-2021 school year as well.