2026-08-31
Multiple pressures are converging on US universities simultaneously, extending well beyond the demographic contraction already projected to reduce traditional-age college enrollment by 13% by 2041, the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education has said. In an article published August 31, The Wall Street Journal identified five compounding forces — international visa restrictions, a falling college-going rate, southward student migration, summer-long financial-aid bidding wars and new federal loan caps on graduate study — that are squeezing even brand-name institutions like Syracuse University, a midsize private school.
2026-08-20
The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education projects that U.S. college enrollments will fall 13% by 2041 as the pipeline of 18-year-olds shrinks, with declines already underway in parts of the Midwest and Northeast. The forecast lands as colleges simultaneously navigate a flight-to-quality in which the most selective institutions attract more applicants while less-selective schools draw fewer.
2026-08-02
Only 7.92 million babies were born in China in 2025, an extraordinarily low figure for a country of about 1.4 billion people, according to a report by Asia Today translated by United Press International. The number of births was only slightly more than half the 12.7 million students expected to graduate from Chinese universities in 2026, the report said.