subject: Enrollment At Online Colleges And Universities Hits All Time High [print this page] Online education has expanded rapidly within the past few years and, despite predictions that enrollment would "begin to level off," colleges across the nation have reported all-time enrollment highs in online programs in 2009. In fact, enrollment in online degree programs increased by 21% in last year, alone.
And, the increase isn't only due to the popularity of the for-profit online sector- non-profit public and private colleges have expanded their online offerings and welcomed a total of 1 million more students into accredited online degree programs. These additional 1 million students enrolled in at least one online course bringing the online education enrollment total to 5.6 million. The increase, though generally unexpected, is a welcome affirmation to proponents of online education programs.
Additionally, 74.9% of public colleges reported in the survey, conducted by the Sloan Consortium and the Babson Survey Research Group, that continuing to expand their online education programs is part of their "long-term plans." Elaine Allen a co-director of the Babson Survey Research Group speculates on the unexpected and somewhat disproportionate growth of online schools in traditional education sectors. Says Allen, traditional colleges are responding to the rapid growth of for-profit online schools and realizing that "if we want to grow and have profits, we need to be in the online sector."
The report of all-time high enrollment rates came as a surprise to many considering the fairly negative press many online for-profit schools have been receiving over the past few months. But, says Allen, while for-profit schools may be feeling the pressure from federal officials to curtail unfavorable recruiting practices, bad press is certainly not affecting online education expansion across the larger higher education sector.
As administrators continue to warm to the idea of teaching online and studies continue to show the effectiveness of learning online,online education is expected to continue growing. And, while enrollment figures may level off in the next few years as competition amongst schools rises and more and more new online programs are implemented across the nation, it's evident that online learning is here to stay.
