Reimagining Higher Education before We Face the Enrollment Cliff

Those in higher education have been aware of the looming “demographic cliff” facing campuses across the US since at least 2018, when Nathan Grawe published Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education. Grawe used data from the Higher Education Demand Index to demonstrate that by 2026, there will be a substantial decrease in the college-going population, particularly from certain geographic regions that have traditionally fed small liberal arts colleges and from populations with a higher ability to pay for college.