Enrollment is up for most colleges and universities in the Tarrant County area in comparison to 2023. But at the largest institutions — Tarrant County College and University of Texas at Arlington — undergraduate enrollment in fall 2024 has not made a complete rebound from pre-COVID levels in fall 2019.
Tarrant County College headcount is down by nearly 3,750 students, or a 7% decrease since fall 2019. Total enrollment for undergraduate students at UTA fell by around 1,380 students, or a 4.5% decrease, over the same time period.
Nathan Grawe, author of “Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education,” said that since the Great Recession in 2007, enrollment at two-year colleges has been on a significant downward trend, with the pandemic further disrupting enrollment.
“Low unemployment and a strong job market also pull prospective students away from two-year attendance,” said Grawe, a professor of economics at Carleton College in Minnesota. “In addition, since 2015 we have seen significant wage compression with wages of low-income jobs rising at a faster clip.”