Women are projected to make up 60 percent of undergraduate enrollment in 2016.

Total undergraduate enrollment in degree-granting postsecondary institutions has generally increased over the past three and a half decades. Enrollments are projected to continue increasing through 2016, albeit at a slower rate than from 1995 to 2005. These increases have been accompanied by changes in the proportions of students who are female, students who attend full time, and students who attend 4-year institutions (see table 8-1). The number of students enrolled part time and full time, the number of students at 2- and 4-year institutions, and the number of male and female undergraduates are all projected to reach a new high each year from 2006 through 2016.

Since 1970, women’s undergraduate enrollment increased more than three times as fast as men’s and surpassed men’s enrollment in 1978. Women made up 42 percent of undergraduate enrollment in 1970, some 50 percent in 1977, and 57 percent in 2005. From 2006 to 2016, both men’s and women’s undergraduate enrollments are projected to increase, but less than they did from 1995 to 2005. Women’s undergraduate enrollment is projected to continue growing faster than men’s enrollment, and women are projected to make up 60 percent of enrollment in 2016.

Undergraduate students are more likely to be enrolled full time than part time, a pattern that is expected to continue. In the 1970s, part-time undergraduate enrollment increased more than five times as fast as full-time undergraduate enrollment. During the 1980s, growth slowed for both groups, while from 1995 to 2005 full-time enrollment grew more than three times as fast as part-time enrollment. Full-time undergraduate enrollment is expected to continue growing more rapidly than part-time enrollment through 2016.

Over the past 36 years, undergraduate enrollment has been larger at 4-year institutions than at 2-year institutions. During this period, enrollment at 2-year institutions rapidly increased in the 1970s (by 82 percent vs. 14 percent for 4-year institutions), slowed in the 1980s and 1990s, and fluctuated from 2000 through 2005. Aside from a slowing in the early 1990s, enrollment has grown fairly steadily at 4-year institutions since 1970. Between 2006 and 2016, enrollment at 4-year colleges is expected to grow more rapidly than enrollment at 2-year colleges (17 vs. 12 percent).