The School of Medicine & Health Sciences saw a nearly 20 percent decrease from 2023 to 2024 in undergraduate degree enrollment, a drop that experts said is specific to the University but could be attributed to national trends in undergraduate health science enrollment.
SMHS undergraduate enrollment dropped 17.6 percent from fall 2023 to fall 2024 and has fallen 41.6 percent since 2020, according to a report presented at last month’s Faculty Senate meeting. University spokesperson Katelyn Deckelbaum said factors including increased health science employment opportunities, a growth in competition from other universities for online degree programs and the school’s focus on in-person programs have contributed to the decrease in enrollment.
Nationally, undergraduate degrees in health professions and clinical sciences increased by 8.3 percent between 2023 and 2024, according to the National Student Clearinghouse.
“We are focusing on programs that align with the University’s mission and address the future demand for health science professionals,” Deckelbaum said in an email.
Nonresidential and virtual undergraduate enrollment dropped 8.3 percent from 2023 to 2024, which includes programs in SMHS, the College of Professional Studies and the School of Nursing, according to the report.
Deckelbaum said the school has recently closed admissions to its Clinical Health Sciences, Clinical Research Administration and Biomedical Informatics undergraduate programs, which composed three of its six undergraduate programs, contributing to the decline in enrollment.
The programs were still accessible on the SMHS programs website until at least July 2024, according to internet archives.
The school’s three remaining undergraduate programs in Clinical Embryology and Assisted Reproductive Technology, Medical Genetics and Molecular Biology and Medical Laboratory Sciences are hybrid or entirely online and require students to enter the program with college credits from an associate’s degree program or an accredited college, according to their webpages.
Deckelbaum said the decrease in enrollment can partly be attributed to the University’s focus on in-person instruction over the online degree programs as a primarily on-campus institution. She said while the school’s online undergraduate programs have seen a decline in enrollment, the in-person programs have increased, including “popular” courses.
No SMHS undergraduate program increased in enrollment from 2023 to 2024, according to the enrollment dashboard.
Deckelbaum said one trend impacting enrollment is expanded employment opportunities in the health sciences that don’t require people to obtain new skills and more options in micro-credentialing and other professional development programs, which allows students to acquire skills without obtaining a degree.
Deckelbaum said the pandemic caused many universities to begin offering online degree programs, which increased the competition for GW and SMHS since their programs also include online options.
Bruce Maki, the senior content editor at the American Institutes for Research, said the decrease in SMHS undergraduate enrollment is abnormal because undergraduate health science degrees have had a “modest dip” in enrollment nationally since 2020 but rebounded since 2022 to near pre-pandemic levels.
Undergraduate degree enrollment in health professions and clinical sciences nationally dropped by 56,595 from 2020 to 2022. There were 1,025,420 students enrolled in these programs nationally in 2024, exceeding 2020’s enrollment of 1,012,372 students, according to the National Student Clearinghouse.
Maki said after the pandemic, many students compare the costs of getting a bachelor’s degree to how much they will make once they enter the workforce. He said most jobs in medicine and health sciences require a degree, but micro-credentialing allows students to obtain skills for a specific job they are looking to enter.
Maki said many universities that didn’t have online degree programs before the pandemic either began to offer online programs and continued their programs after the pandemic, allowing universities to recruit more students for their programs.
“It’s a lot easier for online institutions to recruit from anywhere around the country, anywhere around the world, perhaps,” Maki said. “But on-site institutions, it’s harder to recruit from more distant locations, so that may be a factor at play as well.”
Jeremy Sibold, the associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Vermont College of Nursing and Health Sciences, said the pandemic “tore the veil off” the opportunities for universities to recruit new students through offering online degree programs.
Sibold said part of the reason there is a growth in online degree competition is because of a decrease in graduating high school students that has caused universities to reorient their enrollment strategies to targeting adult learners through online programs.
The number of students graduating high school is expected to peak in 2025 but steadily decrease yearly through 2041, creating an “enrollment cliff” for higher education institutions, according to the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.
“They’re bringing in a whole ton of later-stage learners that finally have an option to do it that fits into their lives because they still have to work and they have to feed their kids,” Sibold said.
