Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Higher Education Enrollment topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
CSCU reports spring 2025 enrollment rebound to nearly 64,000 students
Summary
System officials reported a spring 2025 credit-bearing headcount of about 63,906 across Connecticut State Colleges and Universities, with increases driven by traditional and concurrent enrollment and notable growth at Western and CT State.
The Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) system reported 63,906 credit-bearing students for the spring 2025 semester, a system official said at the March meeting of the Board Committee on Academic and Student Affairs.
Dr. Lloyd Blanchard, the presenter of the enrollment and completions report, told regents the system’s spring-to-spring enrollment rose about 4% overall and described gains both among traditional students and in concurrent (dual) enrollment programs.
Blanchard said about 27,000 students were enrolled at the system’s universities, roughly 34,399 at CT State (the consolidated community college system), and nearly 2,000 at Charter Oak State College (Charter Oak’s final census will be reported after its March 31 census date). He said systemwide increases remain positive even if concurrent-enrollment growth is removed — for example, Western’s spring-to-spring rise would be 4.53% without concurrent enrollment increases.
Why it matters: The system’s reported growth follows years of pandemic-related declines and can affect workforce pipelines, financial aid planning and campus resource needs. Regents pressed staff on how the system measures outcomes for non-degree and certificate students and on comparisons with national benchmarks.
Key data from the presentation: - Credit-bearing headcount (spring 2025): 63,906. - Distribution: approximately 27,000 at the universities; 34,399 at CT State; Charter Oak nearly 2,000 (census pending). - Spring-to-spring percent increases called out by campus: Central +5.8% (gross); Eastern +2.1%; Southern +2.6%; Western +7.2%; CT State +3.5%. - Systemwide first-time, full-time entering undergraduates: nearly 12,000 (about 4,000 at the universities; almost 8,000 at CT State). - Graduate enrollment: 4,531 total (Central ~1,700; Western ~500; Eastern ~183; Southern the largest among universities). - Pell recipients (spring): CT State 44%; Charter Oak 43% (pre-census); universities ~39%; system about 42%. - Retention and graduation snapshots: First-year retention — CT State 65%, universities 77%, Eastern 84%. Three-year community college graduation rate cited at ~18%; six-year university graduation rate about 50%. - Enrollment status: Systemwide roughly 34,000 of the 64,000 students are part-time; two-thirds of CT State enrollments are part-time.
Discussion and follow-up requests Regents asked for better metrics on certificate and short-term credential outcomes; Blanchard said certificate students are not counted in the federal IPEDS graduation-rate calculations and agreed to work with institutional research to produce separate reports on certificate and credential outcomes. Regents also asked about comparisons to national averages for community college completion; system staff said they can provide IPEDS and other national comparison data in a follow-up.
Context and background Blanchard emphasized the role of concurrent enrollment in boosting headcounts but noted that traditional-student enrollments also rose. He highlighted strategic completion areas (business, health, engineering technology, computer/information sciences) and noted the system awards roughly 12,000 credentials annually (about 6,300 from universities; 5,500 from CT State; 576 from Charter Oak).
Looking ahead Staff said additional, disaggregated reports will follow later in the semester (financial aid, non-credit counts and Charter Oak’s final census). Regents asked staff to return with separate analyses on certificate completions and a national benchmarking memo.
