Decline In Enrollment Research Articles

Literary and Arithmetic Schools of Uktus Factory (1735–1742): A Historical Analysis

This article examines the activities of the schools established at the Uktus Factory, initiated by the proactive policies of V.N. Tatischev during his tenure as the head of the factories (1734–1739), aimed at engaging children from all factory residents in formal education. The study establishes enrollment figures for the schools over three-year intervals, details collective recruitment efforts, and presents the total number of students taught literacy and basic mathematics, alongside an analysis of the social and age demographics of the pupils. It demonstrates that during the establishment of a network of factory schools in 1735–1736, the movement of skilled workers to other factories due to production needs rarely interrupted children’s education, often resulting in a turnover of students at Uktus. The article characterizes the teacher, exiled Nikita Afanasyev, highlighting his proactive approach to enhancing the organization of literacy instruction. It identifies key dates regarding the commencement of arithmetic education at the Uktus Literary School in Yekaterinburg, the founding of the arithmetic school at the Uktus Factory, and the appointment of top students from the Yekaterinburg school to teach Uktus children under the supervision of teachers Fyodor Sannikov and Afanasy Kichigin. The reasons for the closure of the schools at the Uktus Factory in autumn 1742 and the sharp decline in student enrollment from 1743 onwards are also analyzed.

Examining Two-Way Dual Language Program Dispersion in the Context of Neighborhood Change, Charter School Expansion, and Enrollment Decline

Examining Two-Way Dual Language Program Dispersion in the Context of Neighborhood Change, Charter School Expansion, and Enrollment Decline

Enrolment of students in Nigerian tertiary institutions: A reflective impact of the slogan ‘who school help'

There has been a noticeable decline in enrolment in some Nigerian tertiary institutions, such as colleges of education, polytechnics, and some state-owned universities. Various factors have been identified as influencing this problem. This study aims to investigate the impact of the popular slogan "Who School Help" on post-secondary school enrolment in Nigeria. The study used a descriptive survey research design, collecting both qualitative and quantitative data. A purposive sampling method was used to select participants from Senior Secondary Class 1 to Senior Secondary Class 3. In this category, 565 students were selected. Additionally, 20 participants were accidentally selected based on inclusion criteria, with 10 of them being secondary school graduates and the other 10 being graduates from tertiary institutions. The study found that all participants claimed to be familiar with and resonate with the slogan 'Who School Help?' Furthermore, the study revealed that factors such as graduate unemployment rate, salary disparities, and political dynamics motivate the promotion of the slogan as a means to explain the decline in post-secondary school enrolment. In conclusion, the study determined that the popular use of the slogan "Who School Help" among Nigerian youths significantly influences individuals' decisions regarding post-secondary education. The limitations and recommendations of the study were also discussed.

Regional public university chief marketing officers' perceptions of best practices for addressing the enrolment cliff

Higher education institutions rely on student enrolments to generate revenue through tuition and fees. The next decade will bring a significant enrolment drop for many institutions because of several factors, including birth-rate declines and demographic shifts. The projected enrolment decline has been called the enrolment cliff due to the impact on colleges and universities that will face a major revenue loss if enrolments decline as predicted. This case study explores chief marketing officers' perceptions of best practices at regional public universities that must be addressed to utilise marketing to help mitigate the enrolment cliff.

The Time is Now, the Time is Always

The time could not be more urgent, and university faculty and leaders must act and reclaim their responsibility for civic preparation. In the face of enrollment decline, an emphasis on student credit hours, and a history of siloed tunnel vision, action seems impossible in a system that opposes the core mission of higher education. In this article, authors—faculty from two teacher preparation departments—share their journey that started as state-mandated program revision to a campus-wide civic agenda. They argue for the integration of civics teaching in disciplinary courses and share classroom teaching ideas that cultivate civic identity and virtues. Feeling empowered, they widened the scope of their work to include a campus-wide learning community and civic survey audits to target professional learning opportunities. Through collected data and lessons learned, they demonstrate the moves needed to reclaim higher education’s core democratic purpose.

Recognizing and Responding to the Untold Stories: How COVID-19 Affected Community College Students’ Decision to Withdraw

ABSTRACT The research paper is an investigation of student withdrawal in an urban community college that primarily serves working-class students, students of color, and first-generation college-goers. Community college students face a myriad of challenges that are not always obvious to faculty and often invisible to the institutions that serve them. At the same time, community colleges and the students they educate are often unfairly characterized as “less than,” suggesting how little they are understood. Nationally, community college students are nearly half of all undergraduates before the COVID-19 pandemic, but less than 40% of them graduate within six years. Additionally, the community college enrollment decline in the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic is causing alarm. As attempts to increase enrollment get underway, this research aims to demonstrate how previous obstacles collided with new complications brought by the pandemic and made college-going beyond challenging for many students. It is the author’s hope that these findings can shed new and much-needed light on recognizing these hardships and that higher education institutions can respond in ways that better support community college students.

Object-Based Teaching in Post-Pandemic Higher Education in the US

ABSTRACT Object-based teaching (OBT) has grown in popularity in American higher education over the past 20 years and is now practiced at a broad range of post-secondary institutions, from community colleges to Research 1 universities. However, the prospects for OBT are changing. After the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social justice movements of 2020–2021, three trends are observable: a continuing decline in humanities enrollments, persistent student preferences for online learning, and the uneven recovery of college and university museums and galleries. In the interest of understanding the current state of OBT in the US, I deployed a survey to the membership of the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries. The following are the results of this survey as well as a reflection on how OBT has emerged as a unique tool during this unprecedented moment in higher education.

The Nexus Between Government Secondary Education Expenditure and Quality of Education in Nigeria

The decline in the educational system in Nigeria has been a burning subject of research over the years due to its essence in National development. This study examined the Nigerian government education expenditure in comparison with selected countries in Africa, the quality of education in the country and explored the relationship between the government secondary education expenditure and the quality of education at that tier of education system. Data for the study was collated majorly from the World Bank database and official documents of relevant government agencies. The data analysis showed that Nigeria recorded the lowest figure in government education expenditure across all the years under study (2010-2018) except in 2012 when it recorded 8.55% ahead of Seychelles at 6.77%. Nigeria's all-time high was in 2015 (9.26%) and the all-time low was in 2018 (5.94%). Nigeria recorded a high secondary school enrollment rate in 2013 of 56.21% and a corresponding government education expenditure of 8.68%, followed by a decline in enrollment (10.59%) in 2014 despite an increased expenditure of 0.36% over the previous year. The analysis also found a relationship (r=0.61) between government education expenditure and secondary school enrollment. The study among other recommendations suggests that the Nigerian government should prioritize education during budget allocation to improve the quality of education at all levels.

Assessing the Dynamics Leading to the Decline in Enrolment of Grade 10 Accounting Learners in Selected Secondary Schools in the Mthatha Education District of South Africa

The purpose of this research was to assess the dynamics leading to the decline in enrolment of grade 10 Accounting learners in selected secondary schools in the Mthatha Education District in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The case study research design was employed as this research focused only on grade 10 learners in secondary schools in Mthatha. The qualitative approach was adopted. The purposive sampling technique was used to select six grade 10 learners from six participating secondary schools. The face-to-face interviews were used to gather data from sampled six grade 10 Accounting learners. The Constructivist Theoretical Framework was adopted. The thematic approach was employed to analyse the collected data. It emerged that learners dropped interest in studying Accounting because they lack therein to have sufficient and relevant content knowledge resulting from incompletion of the syllabus and few basic Accounting concepts in Economic Management Sciences (EMS) subject. It was recommended that EMS teachers should complete the syllabus and add some Accounting concepts in their annual teaching plans (ATPs) to familiarise themselves with and enhance the learners’ desire to enrol in their higher classes. It was also recommended that Accounting teachers should adopt user-friendly teaching pedagogics as well as professionalism that could inspire and empower learners to master the subject content. Lastly, the curriculum planners should re-visit the EMS syllabus to ensure that it prepares the learners for Accounting in higher grades. The findings will be of benefit to all secondary schools in South Africa experiencing the decline in enrolment of learners in their subjects. Keywords: Accounting, Annual teaching plans, Decline enrolment, Economic and Management Sciences, Enrolment of learners, Secondary schools.

“you just look at rocks, and have beards” Perceptions of Geology From the United Kingdom: A Qualitative Analysis From an Online Survey

In the last few decades, Geology courses, particularly in the Global North, have seen a decline in student enrolment. Geologists have linked this downturn to a lack of exposure to the subject at school and college level. This work seeks to understand the public’s relationship with Geology and draws on over 5,000 open-ended question responses to a survey disseminated in 2021. The survey asked both those who had, and had not, studied geology as a subject a series of questions in order to explore their perceptions of the discipline. Our findings indicate that individuals “outside” of geology see the subject as old fashioned, boring, and environmentally damaging; simply the study of rock samples with nothing new to be discovered from; and with poor job prospects outside of the oil and gas industry. Geologists who responded to the survey paint a picture of a broad, interdisciplinary subject, with vibrant employability opportunities—yet struggle to coherently and collectively describe this when asked, “what is geology?”. In addition to the identified perception of geology as boring, and notions of poor employability being a barrier to prospective students, diversity and inclusivity issues are highlighted as significant barriers by those who study geology. Our findings indicate that both geologists and the geology curriculum need to coherently describe what geology is more effectively. We need to develop and better communicate the subject’s interdisciplinary nature and links to critical societal issues, such as the role of responsible mineral extraction in the energy transition and the importance of geology in vital areas such as climate change science, water resource management, environmental conservation, and sustainable urban/built development. Finding new ways to show that, far from being boring, geology is a subject that can fundamentally change the way you see and interact with the world around you is of central importance to achieving this. Efforts to make the subject more equitable are also highlighted as being critical in creating a more inclusive and accessible discipline.

The looming demographic cliff: A wake‐up call for the agricultural and applied economics profession

AbstractThe looming demographic cliff, characterized by a projected decline in college student enrollment, can have important impacts for the agricultural and applied economics profession, academic departments, and universities more broadly across the US. This decline will not only affect the financial stability and sustainability of many agricultural economics departments but also the number of high‐skilled professionals available for the agricultural industry, government bodies, and academia. This article discusses the main factors leading to the demographic cliff, as well as potential strategies for curbing its negative impacts on the profession. In the face of this challenge, it is important to develop a thoughtful, proactive, and strategic approach, and to engage industry, government, and academic partnerships.

Technological Investment and Accounting: A Demand-Side Perspective on Accounting Enrollment Declines

Technological Investment and Accounting: A Demand-Side Perspective on Accounting Enrollment Declines

Qualitative Study of Barriers and Facilitators to Care Among Children in Immigrant Families.

Children in immigrant families comprise ∼25% of US children and live in families with high levels of poverty and food insecurity. Studies suggest a decline in public benefit enrollment among children in immigrant families. We aimed to explore perspectives on barriers and facilitators in accessing care among immigrant caregivers of hospitalized children. With a general qualitative descriptive design, we developed a semistructured interview guide using an iterative process informed by literature and content expertise. Using purposive sampling, we recruited immigrant caregivers of hospitalized children in March 2020 and conducted interviews in English or Spanish. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and translated to English. Three authors coded transcripts using Dedoose and identified themes via thematic analysis. Analysis of 12 caregiver interviews revealed barriers and facilitators in accessing healthcare and public benefit use. Barriers included healthcare system barriers, immigration-related fear, and racism and discrimination. Within healthcare system barriers, subthemes included language barriers, cost, complexity of resource application, and lack of guidance on available benefits. Within immigration-related fear, subthemes included fear of familial separation, fear of deportation, fear that benefit use affects immigration status, and provider distrust. Healthcare system facilitators of resource use included recruiting diverse workforces, utilizing language interpretation, guidance on benefit enrollment, legal services, and mental health services. Participants also recommended hospital partnership with trusted information sources, including media stations and low-cost clinics. Immigrant caregivers of hospitalized children identified barriers and facilitators in access to care. Further research is needed to assess the efficacy of caregiver-suggested interventions.

Extending understanding of the relationship between school district COVID-19 reopening plan signals and enrollment decline

Preceding the 2020-21 school year, school districts engaged their communities by sharing pandemic school reopening plans, outlining the learning modalities and support services to be made accessible to students. Existing research has highlighted a connection between a district’s primary reopening method and changes in student enrollment—a crucial aspect for gauging responsiveness to different learning environments. Conversely, limited research has established the relationship between new health and safety procedures, provisions for vulnerable students, learning support services, or the level of community engagement undertaken by a district in creating reopening plans and student enrollment change, independent of the method of reopening (e.g., in-person or distanced). We do so using two methodological approaches. First, we use differences-in-differences approaches to estimate the impact of reopening method on enrollment changes. Second, we leverage granular data of reopening plans for a representative sample of Missouri school districts in a triple-differences approach. We find that signaling the intent to begin the school year with distanced instruction generated a 3% decline in enrollment beyond pandemic-era declines, concentrated among the youngest students. Extending existing reopening findings, we also estimate that enrollment declined an additional 5% in middle schools where districts did not require masking.

Skills Requirements for a Knowledge Economy as a Determinant of Private Demand for Postgraduate Studies in Selected Universities in Kenya

Although there has been a consistent increase in private demand for postgraduate studies in Kenyan universities, recent trends indicate a decline in postgraduate enrolment. This decline presents potential challenges in attaining both the objectives of the universities and Kenya's Vision 2030. Existing literature highlights that the decision to pursue postgraduate studies is influenced by various factors, one of which is skills requirements for a knowledge economy. Within this context, the primary aim of this study was to evaluate how skills requirements for a knowledge economy affects private demand for postgraduate studies in selected universities in Kenya. Employing an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, the study combined both quantitative and qualitative approaches to comprehensively examine the effects of skills requirements for a knowledge economy on private demand for postgraduate studies. The target population comprised all 60,515 students enrolled in Master's and PhD programmes in both public and private chartered universities in Kenya during the research period. The study employed a systematic random sampling technique to select 395 Master's and PhD students from four public chartered universities and three private chartered universities, which were purposefully selected. Data collection was done through the use of questionnaires and interviews. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, while qualitative data underwent thematic and content analysis. The regression model for skills requirements for a knowledge economy and private demand for postgraduate studies, yielded a regression coefficient of B = .447, signifying significance. However, with a probability level of p = .099 > .05 (at a significant level of p < .05), skills requirements for a knowledge economy emerged as a non-significant predictor of private demand for postgraduate studies. The study reveals that while pursuing postgraduate studies increases an individual's competitiveness and standing within an organization, it falls short of providing all the crucial skills required by the labour market. To address this, the study advocates for the integration of innovative studies into postgraduate programmess in universities in Kenya, thereby expanding the training institutions' offerings to meet the country's advanced skills needs. The study further recommends enhanced collaboration between universities and employers in both the private and public sectors, as well as relevant industries in the labour market. This partnership would facilitate the provision of accurate information, training opportunities, and employment prospects for postgraduate students, ultimately bridging the gap between their education and the skills demanded by the labour market. Keywords: Skills requirements, Knowledge economy, Private demand, Postgraduate studies.

The quality of admission to Russian doctoral programs during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT Previous studies have shown that the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on higher education systems and student learning globally. However, despite this, many countries experienced an increase in doctoral enrolment in 2020, which has raised concerns about the quality of admission and the motivation of doctoral candidates during the pandemic. This article aims to explore this context by delving into statistics about Russian doctoral programmes, which saw a decline in enrolment from 2010 to 2019. We use data from a web survey of 1,895 students enrolled in doctoral programmes at Russian universities in 2020. The results suggest that the increase in enrolment came in tandem with a decrease in the quality of doctoral admission. More students with non-academic motivation and a lack of academic skills and attainment were admitted. This situation is likely to prompt completion rates to lower over the course of the next three to five years.

The intergenerational transmission of higher education: Evidence from the 1973 coup in Chile

We estimate the transmission of higher education across generations using the arrival of the Pinochet dictatorship to Chile in 1973 as natural experiment. Pinochet promoted a large contraction in the number of seats available for new students across all universities. Using census data, we find that parents who reached college age shortly after 1973 experienced a sharp decline in college enrollment. Decades after democratization, we observe that their children are also less likely to enroll in higher education. The results imply large and persistent downstream effects of educational policies over more than half a century.

Where the Kids Went: Nonpublic Schooling and Demographic Change during the Pandemic Exodus from Public Schools

Over the first two full school years under the COVID-19 pandemic, K-12 enrollment in public schools fell dramatically (i.e., by more than 1.2 million students) with losses concentrated among the youngest students. Currently, little is known about where these students went and what learning environments they are experiencing. In this research note, I present leading descriptive evidence on this question by combining public-school enrollment data with newly collected state-level data on private-school and homeschool enrollment and Census-based estimates of the changed size of the school-age population resident in each state. These data indicate that, between the 2019-20 and the 2021-22 school years, homeschool and private-school enrollment grew by 30 and 4 percent, respectively. Across the states with available data, increased homeschool enrollment and population loss each explain 26 percent of the public-school enrollment decline while the more modest increase in private-school enrollment explains 14 percent. Over a third of public-school enrollment loss cannot be explained by observed changes in nonpublic-school enrollment and the school-age population. This large residual indicates the pandemic may have shaped learning opportunities, particularly for the youngest children, in additional ways (e.g., skipping kindergarten, unregistered homeschooling, truancy) that merit further scrutiny.

Forming a Unique Partnership Between a University's Educational Leadership Master's Degree Program and Its Surrounding School Districts Using the Five Whys Protocol.

In 2019, program leaders and professors in the university's educational leadership program noticed a significant decline in enrollment, and state leadership test scores for the program were below the state average. Using the Five Whys protocol and five stages of the design thinking process as identified by IDEO (Brown & Katz, 2019), they set to resolve the issues. The Five Whys protocol is an iterative and formative interrogative technique used to explore cause-and-effect relationships. As noted by Serrat (2017), the primary goal of the technique is to determine the root cause of a problem by repeating the question up to five times. Each response informed the foundation for the next iteration and allowed the group to settle on the root cause of the problem. Then, design thinking was used to provide a solution-based approach to resolving the problems noted. Program leaders began by forming a stakeholder workgroup that included school district leadership development professionals from each of the university's surrounding districts. Program leaders used district leader input to understand what skills school districts needed in graduates of the university program and considered possible program changes to address the problems noted. The result of the year-long process was a program transformation, with increased enrollment and improved state assessment scores, to a widely accepted and successful master's degree program that is supported by all districts served by the university.

Factors associated with low antiretroviral therapy enrollment of children in the Simiyu region: A cross-sectional Creswell mixed-methods sequential explanatory design.

Despite substantial antiretroviral therapy (ART) coverage in other groups with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Tanzania, there is a progressive decline in ART enrollment among HIV-infected children. This study aimed to determine the factors affecting the enrollment of children with HIV in ART and to identify an effective, sustainable intervention to address children's ART care enrollment. To achieve this, we conducted a cross-sectional study using a mixed-method sequential explanatory design, including children with HIV aged 2 to 14 years in the Simiyu region. Stata™ and NVIVO™ software were used to perform quantitative and qualitative data analyses, respectively. In the quantitative analyses, we considered 427 children, with a mean age of 8.54 ± 3.54 years and a median age of 3 years (interquartile range: 1-6 years). The mean length of ART initiation delay was 3.71 ± 3.21 years. Additionally, independent child enrollment predictors included distance to the facility (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 3.31; 95% confidence interval [CI]:1.14-9.58), caregivers' income (AOR: 0.17; 95% CI: 0.07-0.43), and fear of stigma (AOR: 3.43; 95% CI: 1.14-10.35). In qualitative analyses, 36 respondents reported that stigma, distance, and lack of HIV-positive status disclosure to their fathers were causes for low enrollment in ART. Overall, this study demonstrated that a caregiver's income, distance to obtain HIV care services, HIV-positive status non-disclosure to the father, and fear of stigma played a significant role in children's enrollment in HIV care. As such, HIV/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome programs would benefit from having intensive interventions to address distance, such as scaling up care and treatment centers, as well as techniques to reduce stigma in the population.