Dr. Mikyung Ryu makes numbers her job. And while Ryu knows that numbers don’t lie, she also knows that in order to understand what the numbers are telling us, we need the whole story.
Ryu is the director of research publication at the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
Last week, they released a study of Spring 2021 enrollment, which showed a dramatic decrease in total undergraduate enrollment. And there were significant loses in programs associated with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
This is particularly alarming, given that jobs in the STEM industry have traditionally been underrepresented by women and people of color. In fact, a Georgetown University 2019 study found that racial equity for Black and Latinx workers in engineering could take 76 years to achieve, or 256 years if only counting Black workers.
The downward trend in undergraduate enrollment impacted diverse and underserved populations across the board, including Latinx enrollment, which had been exponentially growing before the pandemic.
“Latinx were often the only ethnic group who was growing in enrollment pre-pandemic,” she said. “But all those gains got lost.”
Ryu was able to point to some bright spots hidden in the overall data. Transfer students moving from two to four year institutions actually increased. And despite an overall loss in STEM programs, women’s enrollment didn’t actually dip. Male enrollment did.
