State higher-education enrollments fell during pandemic; committee reviews financial-aid programs and budget impacts

Michelle Ali Shahi, fiscal analyst to the committee, told the panel that undergraduate enrollments at Washington’s public four-year institutions declined from fall 2023 to fall 2024 by about 8% for total undergraduates and about 10% for resident undergraduates, and that much of the drop occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The presentation covered a 10-year span (fall 2015–fall 2024). Shahi said enrollments at the state’s six public four-year institutions totaled about 90,700 undergraduates in fall 2024, and the 34 community and technical colleges served about 137,000 students that term. She said research universities and comprehensive regional institutions experienced different patterns: research institutions showed smaller net declines over the decade while comprehensive institutions declined more sharply, with some variation by campus.

The committee’s session then turned to state financial-aid programs. Shahi described the Washington College Grant (WCG) as the state’s largest need-based financial program, created by the 2019 Workforce…