Published by Nevada Public Radio
COVID-19 has created a lot of uncertainty in higher education for dorm life, tuition and online education.
Some of these questions were put to students nationwide by the Arts & Science Group, which is an independent group that advises universities.
Richard Hesel is the publisher and researcher of the student poll that is called ‘How COVID-19 Continues to Influence the Choices of College-Going Students’
The group polled 1,200 high school students around the country about their college plans for the fall, Hesel said, and 15 percent said they were deferring enrollment for another semester or another year.
“It’s dramatically different. This is a shock to the system,” Hesel said.
The drop in enrollment will have a major impact on the financial health higher education institutions, he said.
The biggest reason for the change is the fragility of the student's financial situation.
“In our latest survey, we found that 50 percent of the students that we surveyed said that their families had been financially affected by this crisis – either lost a job, was furloughed or took a cut in pay,” Hesel said.
Students are worried about whether their families can pay for college.
Hesel also found that 12 percent of students who have already paid a deposit for a university have decided not to go.
“That’s a huge percentage,” he said, “[The numbers are] unprecedented. I think there hasn’t been a shock to higher education like this for as long as I can remember.”
But not all institutions are the same, he noted. Hesel said he talked to some institutions who have seen no drop in student enrollment and some that are very concerned about enrollment numbers.
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