Undergraduate enrollment at California State University campuses suffers as transfer student applicants decline
San Diego, Calif. — The California State University system has seen a steady decline in overall undergraduate and graduate enrollment at their different campuses since its peak in fall 2020 due to the overall decrease of transfer student enrollment.
“A sustained decline in enrollment throughout the CSU presents fundamental and significant threats to our mission,” CSU Interim Chancellor Dr. Jolene Koester said at the September 2022 CSU Board of Trustees meeting.“It presents fundamental and significant threats to the viability of our universities and the future of the communities those universities serve.”
In fall 2020, the university-wide enrollment was at 485,550. In fall 2021, the number decreased to 477,466 and this year it continued to decrease to 457,992 students, according to reports from the California State University page.
With first-year enrollment increasing by more than 60,000 students and reaching pre-pandemic numbers, Koester said that transfer student enrollment is the cause for the decline in overall enrollment. The enrollment of transfer students is down by almost 12,000 students from its peak in fall of 2020.
But the decline in transfer enrollment is not unique to only the CSU system.
“This is reflective of a national trend and it is driven here primarily by a decrease in transfer students, but also changes in continuing student course taking,” Koester said.
The issue is not only that students do not want to transfer anymore, but California students are not enrolling in school after high school anymore.
The CSU public affairs manager Hazel Kelly attributed the decline in transfer enrollment to the reduced enrollment in the California Community Colleges — the main source of transfer students at the CSU.
Pauline Gonzalez, 22, is a political science transfer student from Santa Monica College. This is Gonzalez’s first year at San Diego State University.
When looking for schools to transfer to, she looked at multiple schools nationwide and a couple of CSU schools, but she chose SDSU for their better programs offered in law and politics.
Unlike the CSU’s overall enrollment trend, SDSU has seen a consistent trend in enrollment. In fall 2021, there were 35,732 students enrolled while in fall 2022 there were 35,723.
Director of SDSU media relations Cory Marshall noticed the regions where fewer students tend to enroll in college. Northern California is this region and it’s a large factor for the differing enrollment trends between SDSU and the CSU system.
“Much of the CSU’s decline can be attributed to enrollment losses on Northern California campuses. Population declines in those regions are resulting in fewer high school graduates, which is contributing to the downward trends,” Marshall said. “Additionally, continuation rates for students in the CSU began to decline during COVID (as they did around the country), while SDSU’s continuation rates have been pretty stable.”
Both Marshall and Gonzalez also credit SDSU’s strong reputation nationally and internationally for competitive research opportunities and renowned school spirit to make it a school that stands out the most for students going into the CSU system.
But SDSU is not completely in the clear when it comes to enrollment numbers. Marshall expects a decrease in enrollment soon as enrollment in colleges decrease nationally.
“I mentioned above that the San Diego and Southern California regions are just a few years away from demographic declines, and in fact those declines are going to happen at a national level because of birth rate decreases that started during the Great Recession,” Marshall said, referring to the impending decline as the enrollment cliff.
The drop in overall CSU enrollment is affecting current and future students because it’s beginning to cause negative financial impacts to campus auxiliaries, such as on-campus housing.
“We have reached a moment in time where urgent and immediate action needs to take place,” Koester said.
Possible solutions that are being discussed include discontinuing the impaction of some schools, as well as exploring partnerships with high school districts that have low college enrollment rates. One of these high school districts mentioned is Los Angeles Unified School District.
SDSU also plans to connect with high school districts so they do not fall into the enrollment cliff.
Part of the CSU mission is “to prepare significant numbers of educated, responsible people to contribute to California’s schools, economy, culture, and future,” but it continues to be a difficulty for the CSU system to find enough students to prepare for these roles.
This project was produced by Maritza Camacho on December 9, 2022 as a published learning experience in the Journalism and Media Studies Program at San Diego State University.
