Fewer California high school graduates are enrolling in UC, CSU, survey says

Clarification: The original version of this article’s headline was unclear. Fewer California high school graduates are enrolling in the University of California and California State University systems, survey says.

California high school graduates are less likely to enroll in the state’s four-year universities, an effect of increased applicant pools and decreased funding to the colleges in recent years, according to survey data released last week.

The survey, conducted by the nonpartisan think tank Public Policy Institute of California, found that the percentage of eligible high school graduates enrolling in public universities, such as the University of California and California State University systems, has declined by 20 percent since 2007.

It examined the admission statistics for university-eligible students at the UC and CSU systems between 2007 and 2010.

To become UC-eligible, students must complete a set of college preparatory criteria called the A-G requirements, including four years of college preparatory English and three years of math.

The number of California high school students who have completed the A-G Requirements has steadily increased in the last 20 years, according to data from the California Postsecondary Education Commission.

But despite the larger number of students meeting these criteria, an increasing number are not enrolling, said Hans Johnson, author of the study.

The decline in enrollment stems from limited funding at state universities in recent years, which has decreased the number of students accepted to their first-choice schools, according to the survey.

In the past 10 years, state funding for the UC has decreased by about half, according to Daily Bruin archives.

As funding from the state has declined, the university has been limited in the number of students it can accept, said Bob Cox, manager of the UCLA Office of Analysis and Information Management.

“Enrollment targets have not risen because we don’t have the funding to educate the increasing number of students applying,” said UC spokeswoman Dianne Klein.

With an increasing number of students meeting eligibility requirements for enrollment at the UC, there are more students vying for a stagnant number of spots. This forces some students to look to options outside of state public higher education.

A large percentage of students who reject their UC offers end up going to a private university. The rest go to CSUs, California community colleges and out-of-state schools, the survey stated.

About 34 percent of students who rejected an offer to the UC in 2010 opted to go to a private university, according to the data. Ten percent of applicants did not enroll at any college.

In fall 2011, more than 11,000 California residents were accepted to UCLA, according to data from the UC Office of the President. Less than 5,000 of these accepted applicants enrolled.

Students who meet eligibility requirements but are not admitted to the campuses they apply to are placed into a referral pool and offered admission at UC Merced, but the vast majority of these students do not end up enrolling at the school, Johnson said.

The survey data pointed to a number of options to alleviate the trend, such as increasing the availability of loans, reviewing student outcomes at institutions that provide Cal Grants and providing funding based on course completion in addition to student enrollment.

If the trend continues, there could be a decreased supply of qualified workers that might not meet the state’s future workforce demands, according to the survey.

“Increasingly, the economy is demanding more highly skilled and trained workers,” said Johnson. “Yet our higher education system is not likely to meet that demand.”