Historical Share of Enrollment Public vs. Not-for-Profit 4 Year

Keith Greiner, Ed.D.

November 6, 2016

This essay is about the historical enrollment share between public four-year colleges and universities and not-for-profit colleges and universities. The historical share for Iowa is used to compare, and add context to the U. S. data. The history gives us guidance for future policy.

In the United States there are basically three higher education sectors with each sector having three sub-sectors. The three sectors are public, private not-for-profit (also called private non-profit), and private for-profit. Using the language of the National Center for Education Statistics, the full list of sectors is shown below. The NCES also lists a sector called administrative unit, which is not relevant to this discussion.

Public

• • Public, 4-year or above

  • Public, 2-year

  • Public, less-than 2-year

Private not-for-profit

• • Private not-for-profit, 4-year or above

  • Private not-for-profit, 2-year

  • Private not-for-profit, less-than 2-year

Private for-profit

• • Private for-profit, 4-year or above

  • Private for-profit, 2-year

  • Private for-profit, less-than 2-year

For some people, there is contusion as to what sector is which, so I will explain. Public colleges and universities are government-owned. They include four-year colleges and universities’, land grant universities (except for one), and other publicly owned colleges and universities. In many states, the public universities are defined in the state constitution. Examples are Iowa State University, University of Missouri, City College of New York, University of California System, the Naval Academy, and so on. The sector also include the public two-year community colleges, although this analysis excludes two-year institutions and focuses on four-year institutions.

Not-for-profit higher education includes those schools that are organized under the not-for-profit laws of the states in which their headquarters are located. A sample of four-year not-for-profit schools includes Drake University, Simpson College, Columbia University in New York, and Stanford University.

For-profit higher education includes corporations that are organized under the for-profit laws of the states in which they are established. Those states are not necessarily the state where their headquarters are located. For-profit corporations have stock-holder investors who expect to receive a return on their investment. In recent years, for-profit institutions have experienced turbulent growth and declines in enrollment, as owners with short-term profit-driven perspectives seek huge increases in enrollment and then collapse under changing market or regulatory conditions. Many have been been the subject of Federal and State investigations. Some have been closed under pressure from government regulators because of inappropriate recruiting and financial aid policies. Examples include the University of Phoenix, ITT Technical institute (closed in 2016), Heritage College (closed in 2016), and Kaplan University.

This essay describes the long-term trends in enrollment in public four-year colleges and universities vs. private not-for-profit four-year colleges and universities. So that there might be an apples-to-apples comparison, I have excluded the private for-profit sector. Those schools attract a different demographic, and their enrollment was so volatile during the latter 20th century and early 21st century that adequate long-term comparison is problematic.

The analysis compares US trends and Iowa trends. Lets begin with the US trends.

Graph 1 shows twenty-four years of stability in the share of total enrollment when divided between public four-year and private four-year colleges and universities. For public four-year institutions the low was 69.8% and the high was 71.7%. Conversely for the private not-for-profit instructions, the low was 28.3% and the high was 30.2%. The range is 1.9 percentage points. Those who look only at the national data might conclude that the consistency seen nationally, applies everywhere. The Iowa trends counter that idea.

Graph 2 shows the Iowa share of public four-year vs. private not-for-profit four-year institutions. Here we see a much more interesting share trend, with the public four-year universities (the Regents universities) ranging from 55.0% to 64.4%, and the private not-for-profit colleges and universities ranging from 35.6% to 45.0%. The range is 9.4 percentage points.

Private colleges and universities showed a declining share and recovery from 1980 through 1989. The more recent decline occurred after 1989, and continued through 2015. Note that despite the variations in the Iowa market share, the proportion of not-for-profit enrollment in Iowa is higher than the national averages. There are several reasons for the higher percentage share of not-for-profit institutions in Iowa. First, there was a substantial growth of private colleges in the latter half of the 19^th century. The growth of private colleges during that period made Iowa a well-educated state. Schools were often sponsored by both Catholic and Protestant religious groups that sought to share the liberal arts of a well-rounded education, in the context of their religious beliefs. The purpose was to build a well-rounded population that was well prepared for private and public life. Second, is the Iowa Tuition Grant that was created during the 63^rd Iowa General Assembly (1969). Creation of the Grant was in response to overcrowding at the Regent universities as baby-boomers arrived at college and stretched the limits of Regents capacity to serve all eligible students. The Iowa Tuition Grant was intended to take the pressure off of overcrowding at Iowa Regent institutions. The idea was to equalize cost of attendance at an Iowa not-for-profit college or university with the Regent institutions. Legislators reasoned that if the cost were equalized, then more students would attend not-for-profits, and the Regents would not have to expand their facilities. Today, the Iowa Tuition Grant continues to fulfill that vision as it offers need-based scholarships to students at Iowa not-for-profit institutions as it increases the overall percentage of students who attend private not-for-profit colleges and universities.

In 2014, Iowa ranked 12th in the nation for the percentage of students who were enrolled in not-for-profit colleges and universities. Massachusetts had the highest percentage with 69.1% attending not-for-profit institutions. The District of Columbia tops all the states with 93.9% attending not-for-profits. This is because DC does not have an abundance of government sponsored institutions, although it does have several not-for-profits. Below is a list of the enrollment percentages for public and private not-for-profit colleges and universities for each state. The list is ranked by the enrollment percent of private not-for-profit institutions. Private for-profit institutions are not included because of the substantial enrollment volatility they have shown in recent years.

The map presented below shows states that are above the median percentage for not-for-profit enrollment as darker shades, and public colleges and universities, above their median percentages, in lighter shades. Notice that the higher percentage of not-for-profits is basically the northeastern quarter of the country plus a few states that border the eastern South and plus Nebraska, Idaho, Utah, and California.

The map can sometimes be slow to load. If you do not see it, click in the area outlined below, or the dot in the middle of the space.