Growth is coming

The US Department of Education released its report titled "Projections of Education Statistics to 2018" last month (September 2009).  This report provides projections for

"key education statistics, including enrollment, graduates, teachers, and expenditures in elementary and secondary schools. Included are national data on enrollment and graduates for the past 15 years and projections to the year 2018, as well as state-level data on enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools and public high school graduates to the year 2018" (Hussar & Bailey, 2009).

The focus of this post is the report's projections for post-secondary education.

College enrollment is expected to increase 13.6% to 20.6 million students.  Expect this growth to equate to an increase of "9% for students who are 18 to 24 years old;  25% for students who are 25 to 34
years old; and 12% for students who are 35 years old and over" (Hussar & Bailey, 2009).  Full-time enrollment is expected to increase 15% and part-time enrollment 10%.  Undergraduate enrollment will increase 12%; graduate enrollment 18%; and first-professional 20% (first-professional is defined as one that signifies both completion of the academic requirements for beginning practice in a given profession and a level of professional skill beyond that required for a bachelor’s degree).

This report states from the outset that post-secondary projections do not account for the impact distance learning might have on enrollment, but I am encouraged the US Department of Education acknowledges e-learning.  Although this report does not address whether or not the enrollment is online, some of these students will earn their degrees via online instruction. 

The projected enrollment increase coincides nicely with a US Bureau of Labor statistics projection that education employment opportunities will increase as well.  The logical conclusion should be that as enrollment increases, these new students will be well versed in collaborative technologies due to the proliferation of social networking applications such as Facebook, Twitter, wikis, and blogs; therefore, educators will likely need to be proficient at these technologies as well in order to incorporate them into their instruction plan. 

Hussar, W. J., & Bailey, T. M. (2009). Projections of education statistics to 2018. Retrieved 
     September 16, 2009 from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009062.