Highline enrollment takes a big drop this year, but there is still time for recovery.
As of October 11, which is the 109th day of registration, Highline has a headcount of 7,245. In comparison, at this point last year the total headcount was 7,781. The full-time equivalent count is at 5,041, while it was at 5,533 last year.
This drop is substantial, as it is the biggest drop in numbers that Highline has had in the last five years for both the headcount and full-time equivalents.
The headcount is a metric used to measure how many total students are enrolled. However, Highline also measures students by seeing how many full-time equivalent students there are.
Full-time equivalents are used to see how many students would be enrolled if all of the credits being taken were full-time students. So, if three different students were taking a five credit class each, they would count as one full-time equivalent.
At this point in 2017, the total headcount was 9,787, but that number has dropped year after year. The headcount was 9,829 in 2018, 8,882 in 2019, and 7,979 in 2020.
Full-time equivalents have gone from 6,909 in 2017 to 6,848 in 2018, 6,242 in 2019, and 5,767 in 2020.
That means that Highline’s headcount for this time of year has dropped by 2,615 students since 2017, and the full-time equivalents have dropped by 1,874. The headcount has dropped to 74 percent of what it was, while full-time equivalents are at 73 percent of what they were.
“The biggest decline has been in our State FTEs—our regular-enrolled students who make up the biggest portion of our campus,” said Dr. Teri Balkenende, the Social Sciences Division chair.
“I wonder, though, if the strong jobs reports we’ve seen lately have anything to do with it. Generally, when workers are in high demand, enrollments at community colleges fall, as people look to take advantage of the opportunities. If the job market tightens, we might expect to see more of them return to get more training,” Balkenende said.
Despite total enrollment dropping, individual categories are showing signs of recovery in both headcounts and full-time equivalents.
Worker retraining is up, from a headcount of 80 and 54 full-time equivalents in 2021 to a headcount of 148 and 104 full-time equivalents.
International students are up from 2021 as well, the headcount has gone from 174 to 214, and full-time equivalents have gone from 153 to 199.
One of the bigger drops is from ELCAP, also known as English Language Career and Academic Prep. They went from 1,651 full-time equivalents to 1,301.
Among all of the fluctuating numbers, there are some categories that remain relatively consistent.
Running Start has gone from a headcount of 1,275 to 1,212, and full-time equivalents have gone from 1,153 to 1,088.
The Bachelor programs have gone from a headcount of 331 to 316, and 267 full-time equivalents to 256.
These numbers are all for day 109 of fall registration, registration typically begins during Spring Quarter.
At this point in the school year the numbers begin to stabilize so there shouldn’t be any drastic changes to the numbers.
“[Something] that I expect is still weighing us down is the pandemic. Things seem to be opening up again, and I think a lot of people are probably hoping to get back to work and back to normal,” Dr. Balkenende said.
Highline has seen some improvements during previous quarters. The last day of Spring Quarter in 2022 saw a headcount of 7,536, while 2021 had a headcount of 7,420. While this may be an outlier, there is still a chance for recovery in future quarters.