Reenrolling Students Present Opportunities, Challenges for Online Colleges
Credit: Fly View Productions / E+ / Getty Images- A new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found that the percentage of students stopping out is decreasing, but the overall stop-out population is still growing.
- Primarily online institutions had the most reenrollees proportionally to other institutions, but these students graduated the lowest rate.
- While they need to improve transparency, online colleges can offer opportunities to students who would not be able to go to college otherwise, an expert told BestColleges.
The number of students who’ve completed some college but have no credentials (SCNC) grew for the third year in a row. Still, fewer students are stopping out, and more are reenrolling, especially in primarily online colleges.
However, those reenrollees in online colleges were the least likely to graduate.
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Those were among the findings of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s “Some College, No Credential Student Outcomes” report released June 4.
“It is inspiring to see that over 1 million adults returned to campuses last year — the most we’ve ever recorded,” Doug Shapiro, executive director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, said in a press release.
“They’re reviving college aspirations that had been put on hold years before. And states and institutions are working to make it even easier for more students to do so in the future.”
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The SCNC population grew to 43.1 million at the start of the 2023-24 academic year, According to the report, with 37.6 million of them of working age under age 65.
Despite stop-outs increasing, 6.9% fewer students stopped out between Jan. 1, 2022, and July 31, 2023. More students are also reenrolling — all race and ethnicity groups saw gains in reenrollment, perseverance, or credential earning over the last three years.
The new data show that primarily online institutions had the most reenrollees proportionally to other institutions, but they graduated these students at the lowest rate: 11.9%.
Primarily online colleges also had the second-most number of stop-outs, according to the report.
This is nothing new; primarily online schools ranked second for most stop-outs in last year’s report behind for-profit four-year institutions.
The finding also lines up with separate data analysis by think tank Third Way showing that online degree enrollees were 8.3 percentage points less likely to finish a bachelor’s than non-online students. Low-income and veteran students finished their online programs at even lower rates.
BestColleges previously spoke with Third Way report co-author Dr. Justin C. Ortagus, an associate professor of higher education administration and policy and the director of the Institute of Higher Education at the University of Florida, to find out why online students were less likely to finish college and how online colleges could improve.
“If the institution can offer a completely flexible, exclusively online experience, and do so in a way that does not have the same type of harms that are associated with for-profit, four-year online experiences, then that can be a net positive for student completion in that you’re capturing students who may not attend college otherwise,” he said.
As nonprofit public and private colleges add online programs, he said, they need to earn more students’ trust by being transparent about costs and revenue.
“I think it’s really important not to lose the thread here, that exclusively online programs do have a place in higher education,” Ortagus said. “They can offer opportunities to students who would not be able to go to college otherwise”