Indiana’s college-going rates and overall college enrollment have been declining for over a decade. This year, the data are more promising.
According to data from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, 53 percent of the high school graduating class of 2021 enrolled in college right after graduation. This rate is now steady after previously declining.
This year was the first in 13 years that college enrollment in Indiana has increased, and it increased by nearly 5,000 students.
Indiana’s four-year institutions were ranked sixth best in the nation at holding the line on tuition and mandatory fees.
Read more: ‘I went in blind’: Rural students lag in college enrollment
Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education Chris Lowery said Purdue University got a lot of positive attention for this, especially when Former President Mitch Daniels was there, but Indiana University and Ball State, among other intuitions, have also done well at holding down costs.
“When I tell people ‘Look we’re sixth best,’ they go, ‘Really?’ ‘Yeah, we are.’ And then when you start looking and comparing us to other states, we’re very competitive from a tuition and fees perspective,” Lowery said, adding that more can be done.
He hopes to improve college enrollment, completion and graduate retention by 2030.
“As I like to say oftentimes, I’m pleased but not satisfied,” Lowery said. “We should be a top ten, in fact, I’d love for us to be the top state in terms of completion rates.”
The improvements are a result of policy changes such as the new 21st-Century Scholars automatic enrollment and outcome-based performance funding initiatives for schools, he said.
Read more: Thousands auto-enrolled in 21st Century Scholars Program, leaders hope to boost college rates
