PASSHE board reports stable enrollment at its schools
Board will seek more money from state to freeze tuition
Schools within the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) had what has been characterized as “stable” enrollment for the fall semester.
At a meeting of the PASSHE board of governors Thursday, it was reported that almost 83,000 students are enrolled in the 10 universities in its system, including PennWest University, which has a campus in California. The board said that PennWest enrollment held steady, as it also did at Shippensburg University. Cheyney University, a historically Black institution near Philadelphia, had a 1.9% increase in enrollment, followed by East Stroudsburg at 1.6%, and Millersville University at 1.3%.
Two other schools in the western part of Pennsylvania experienced enrollment increases, but they were under 1% – Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s enrollment went up by 0.5%, and Slippery Rock University’s inched up by 0.3%.
Steady enrollment buys some time for the PASSHE, which is looking ahead at forecasts that say there will be 10% fewer high school graduates in Pennsylvania in 2040 than there are today. Some regions could see even steeper declines. This would lead to a loss of about $63 million in tuition revenue every year.
According to Cynthia Shapira, who chairs the PASSHE board, “Steady enrollment gives our universities some time to prepare for the changes ahead. We are focused on providing a quality higher education at the lowest possible cost, reaching more students and helping them finish a degree, and that work takes investment.”
The board of governors also said it will request that the appropriation it receives from the state every year be increased by 5.5% next year so tuition can be frozen next fall for undergraduate, in-state students. For this academic year, tuition is $4,169 per semester and $8,338 for the entire academic year.
Tuition was frozen at PASSHE schools from 2018 to 2025, and this year it increased by 4.3%, or $172 per semester.
In order to offset some of the losses in the number of high school graduates, the board said PASSHE schools will, among other things, increase efforts to enroll working adults, make it easy for students to transfer from other institutions and welcome back students who had dropped out before completing a degree.
Universities in the state system will also be looking at academic programs and potentially phasing out those that generate little student interest.
“About 90% of our students are enrolled in only 30% of university programs,” said Christopher Fiorentino, chancellor of the PASSHE. “Our resources need to go where students want to study and where Pennsylvania employers need graduates.”