The coronavirus pandemic has caused disruptions in numerous industries, including education. Every educational institution from kindergarten to post-grad has had to rush to meet new learning demands, including distance education and addressing parents’ roles in their children’s learning. And while the media has seen a deluge of reporting on the number of institutions moving classes online, there are other trends afoot that haven’t received as much coverage.
As a vice chancellor at the University of Hawai’i Maui, I’ve had an inside view of how institutions are coping with the difficulties wrought by the pandemic. Many of the changes could not have been foreseen, even with the sharpest of trend projections or strongest of crystal balls.
Here are some of the most prevalent underreported trends to hit higher education, with a focus on those happening in Hawaii.
1. Students Transferring From Mainland Colleges to Ones in Hawaii
With its economic dependence on tourism, Hawaii has been hit particularly hard, causing many residents to lose their jobs. That loss of income has made paying for their children’s college education difficult, if not impossible, at least for the moment. This has caused parents to bring their kids back from the mainland to enroll locally, where tuition costs are lower and there’s no need to pay for room and board. Some recent high school graduates who had planned to attend college on the mainland are deferring their admission to 2021, when, it is hoped, the pandemic will be over.
But it’s not just simple economics that is making students rethink their choice of college. Part of the allure of going to the mainland was to experience somewhere new, but with most universities moving their classes online, that appeal dried up, prompting students to reconsider local options.
Earlier this year, Oregon State University sent out 408 offers to Hawaiian students, who regularly made up a sizable percentage of its out-of-state population. As of the beginning of April, the school had about half as many students secure a spot as it had seen the previous year.
In some ways, this is a boon for Hawaii’s colleges. The University of Hawaii, for one, extended its application deadline from May 1 to August 1, to attract those students who might have decided to stay closer to home. In contrast to Oregon State, Hawaii Pacific University has reported a 20% increase in entering full-time freshmen.
2. Students Disenrolling From College Altogether
For some families, even a local college education doesn’t make financial sense right now. At UHMC, more students than normal have stated that they were disenrolling in order to get jobs to help their families make ends meet. Whether or not those students will re-enroll after the dangers have passed remains to be seen. But my hope is that, when the economy recovers, those students will seek to continue their educational path and go on to fulfilling careers.
3. Students Opting for Online vs. In-Person Classes
For many parents and students, the risks associated with attending class on campus just aren’t worth it. Instead, many are choosing homeschooling and online alternatives, some of which include early college programs.
And that’s not always a bad idea. Before a student decides whether to attend an online college program or to defer admission until in-person classes resume, they should consider these four important questions.
Although many of these trends are so new that I don’t have the statistics on them to share, UHMC has noted that the numbers for each of the above are far larger than in previous years. And while those numbers are alarming, we are lucky that the Hawaiian Islands have not been as hard hit as the mainland, where the numbers are even larger.