Enrollment across Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities has been slumping for five years, but a report released today says the schools nevertheless have seen the number of degrees awarded annually rise.

The universities collectively conferred 20,035 bachelor’s degrees during the 2014 academic year, 10 percent more than the 18,189 degrees awarded in 2009, according to the report by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

The State System’s enrollment peaked at roughly 120,000 in 2010 and has declined since by about 13,000 students.

The grant-funded Georgetown study, unveiled at this morning’s State System board of governors meeting, explored future job needs in the Commonwealth and the State System’s role among other institutions in filling that demand. It also gave a statistical glimpse of enrollment, from the most popular areas of study to the share of low-income students served by the system versus other institutions.

Among the findings:

■ College graduates as a share of Pennsylvania’s population grew from about 29 percent to 31 percent between years 2009 and 2014, the period covered by the study, with the overwhelming majority of bachelor’s holders — 71 percent — located in southeast and southwest Pennsylvania that include Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

■ Thirty-two percent of State System students have incomes low enough to qualify for federal Pell grants, compared with 28 percent at other public institutions in the state and 24 percent at private, non-profit colleges.

■ The State System lagged behind other public campuses and private non-profit colleges in the share of degrees awarded to underrepresented minorities — 9 percent versus 12 and 11 percent, respectively.

■ The system, at 59 percent, tied with private non-profit campuses for the largest share of bachelors degrees awarded to women.

■ State System students who received grant and scholarship aid paid on average about $4,000 less than the net price paid by students at other public bachelor's granting institutions and $10,000 less than at private not-for-profit institutions.

The study said the system’s three biggest degree awarders, West Chester University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Kutztown University, by themselves accounted for more than a third of bachelors degrees awarded, at 35 percent.

The study reiterates that a collection of schools once known as teachers colleges, in fact, produces more business than education degrees nowadays. Business degrees accounted for 16 percent of the system total during years 2009 through 2014, followed by education at 13 percent, humanities and liberal arts at 13 percent, and health at 10 percent. 

The combined STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering and math plus health accounted for 24 percent of bachelors degrees in 2014.

The research was funded by grants from Lumina Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Joyce Foundation.

Bill Schackner: bschackner@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1977 and on Twitter: @BschacknerPG.

READ THE REPORT — Degrees of Value: College Majors and the Pennsylvania State System’s Contribution to the Workforce

First Published: January 21, 2016, 3:54 p.m.
Updated: January 22, 2016, 4:39 p.m.