ADMISSIONS SELECTIVITY AND SHIFTING ENROLLMENTS AT MISSOURI COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

In 1991, the Missouri Business and Education Partnership presented the state's Department of Higher Education with a plan of “differentiated institutional missions,” with the goal of improving public four-year colleges and universities in terms of student success, institutional effectiveness, and system wide efficiency. The objective was to have each institution identify its unique areas of expertise and determine the appropriate degree of admissions selectivity necessary to execute its mission. From the time the initiative was adopted, questions about access and enrollment shifting plagued the effort. Millions of dollars in special mission enhancement funding were appropriated during the past decade, but most Missouri institutions of higher education continue to remain out of compliance with their own self-selected admission standards. This paper discusses the effects of this tiered system of selective admissions on enrollment patterns at public four-year colleges and universities, public community colleges, and independent institutions in Missouri. Data available were interpreted to mean an enrollment shift had been underway among Missouri four-year colleges and universities, but the shift did not seem to be between public four-year institutions (selective to open enrollment, etc.). Rather, a dramatic shift in enrollment away from public four-year institutions, and toward community colleges and four-year independent institutions occurred during the past several years. During the past two decades enrollment at public four-year institutions declined from 57% to 45% of total student FTE in the state. Conversely, combined enrollment at public community colleges and independent four-year institutions increased from slightly less than 43% to approximately 55% of total student FTE.