Deeper Look at Fall 2022 IPEDS Data, part II

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After I published both the Fall 2022 profile of distance education enrollments and the premium follow-up post looking at macro trends, there was a flurry of news about increasing enrollments for Fall 2023. It’s worth pointing out a few basics to help people understand the different data sources showing US enrollments.

• IPEDS Fall Enrollment: US Department of Education (ED) data that uses a census method, with institution-level information and a lag of ~15 months, including modality (exclusive DE, some DE, no DE) since Fall 2012.

• IPEDS 12-month Enrollment: ED data using a 12-month headcount per academic year, with institution-level information and a lag of ~15 month, including modality since 2019-20. See this latest post.

• NSC Current Term Enrollment: National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) data using a rolling census method for Fall and Spring terms, without institution-level information but with a lag of just 2-3 months, since 2012.

Please see the Profile post for any questions on terminology, but exclusive DE = students taking all online courses, some DE = students taking some but not all online courses, ALO DE = students taking at least one online course, and no DE = students taking all face-to-face courses.

Exclusive DE by Control, Updated

Keep in mind (as described in detail in the profile post) that I believe Fall 2022 data represent the first post-pandemic view from IPEDS, where we can see structural changes that will persist. With that in mind, let’s look further at the data.

Morgan shared a view of exclusive DE enrollments by degree type and by control (public vs. private nonprofit vs. private for-profit). With the Fall 2022 we can extend that view while still hiding 2020 - 2021 to better see long-term trends.

Note that public institutions - both 4-year and 2-year - have seen the greatest increase in exclusive DE enrollments from pre- to post-pandemic.

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