November 26th, 2022 by WCBC Radio

Enrollment at Maryland’s public colleges and universities continued to decline again this fall. WTOP reports in fall 2021, there were nearly 165,000 students enrolled throughout the state. This year, there are 163,200 students enrolled, about a 1% drop, though it is a number that is about 1,300 higher than had been originally expected.

But at the University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents meeting earlier this month, optimism was also expressed.

“[For] the first time, full-time enrollment increased for the second year in a row,” noted Ellen Fish, who is a regent at USM. In fact, there are 668 more [full-time] students compared with last year, and that number has USM leaders hopeful.

“More freshmen now means more sophomores, more juniors in two years, more seniors in three years,” said Chad Muntz, assistant vice chancellor for institutional research, data and analytics.