Thirty evangelical colleges saw significant growth in enrolment in 2024. Data from the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), says that these institutions are setting records even after the pandemic. David Hoag CCCU president, explained how leaders can find the best way forward with Christ-centered strategic plans. Broadly speaking, undergraduate enrollment has declined.
He explained “These are kind of challenging times in higher ed, we have 600,000 students at our institutions and 15,000 faculty. We want that number to keep going up, and we’re just trying to find different ways to make that happen.” Since 2010, undergraduate enrollment has declined by nearly 15 percent or roughly 2.5 million students.
While the number of colleges peaked in 2010, Christian schools have dodged this trend. According to data from the Digest of Education Statistics, schools with religious affiliation saw student declines of just 3 percent in 10 years. However secular private schools lost 18 percent of their student population in that same period. Out of all schools, evangelicals have done the best.
Assemblies of God-affiliated schools grew by one-third. Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran institutions grew their enrollment by 23 percent. Nondenominational colleges have expanded. By more than a quarter. One expert reported that “With only a few exceptions, the denominational institutions that decreased the most between 2010 and 2021 were mostly Mainline Protestant institutions.”
Asbury University’s vice president of enrollment and marketing, Jennifer McChord, said “This is a great time for Christian higher ed.” She went on to say “There are families out there in large quantities who are looking for authentic and intentional Christ-centered education.” “Our data is showing us that in all programs, our students are really enjoying and benefiting from the intentional community they experience at Asbury,” she went on to say “And they tend to come back for their next year.”
Much of the growth has come from targeted ads at Christian high schools and international students. Calvin University, for example, has welcomed an increase in international students. Roughly 20 percent of the incoming class was from outside the United States. “Our growth comes from an ongoing, integrated strategic plan of recruitment both within the enrollment division and across the university,” John Zimmerman, a spokesman, said.
Lauren Jensen, the college’s vice president for enrollment strategy, said “We definitely have had international students for decades here at Calvin, but it is part of our growth strategy overall.” She told reporters, “We’ve been able to continue to lean into that and have more and more countries represented.” Another administrator explained why she thinks students are drawn to Christian education.
“Our country is currently facing a time when higher education is in flux,” she said. “But we believe students at every stage of their lives can benefit from a Christ-centered education.” McChord said, “We’ve done some really hard work over the last number of years to realign our academic programs as well as our campus experience to what this generation really wants and needs.” “But the market is really, really difficult right now” she added. While the future is looking strong for Christian education, there are still significant issues to overcome.