Page 26 - BusinessWest January 10, 2022
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OUTLOOK 2022/HIGHER EDUCATION >>
  soon as they are eligible. “We’ll be as cautious and prudent as we were in the fall of 2021, and even more so, given what we’ve seen from Omicron.”
There are other challenges as well, especially a workforce crisis that hasn’t spared any sector, especially higher education.
“We have jobs that are going unfilled; we have jobs where, in the past, we’d have 100 appli-
cants — we’re just not seeing that anymore,” said Thompson, noting this trend involves positions at every level and shows few if any signs of abating any time soon.
But amid the questions, concern, and uncer- tainty, there is also optimism, expressed by Dumay and others, that 2022, and especially the fall semester, will bring improvement on enrollment numbers and a return to something
highest enrollment numbers for first-time fresh- men in more than a decade.
Meanwhile, the numbers for transfer students and graduate students were also solid, with the latter helped by the opening of a graduate admis- sions office, he went on, adding that the only seg- ment that was down was continuing education, the students who transfer from community col- leges, a statistic in keeping with the struggles at those schools.
“As we look to the fall of 2022, everything is trending as it was in the fall of 2021,” he went on. “In fact, we’re ahead, year over year, in terms of applications, and all three segments that were good last year continue to look very solid for 2022.”
Doran shared that optimism. “I feel very con- fident about next fall,” she said. “Many students had an online experience over the past few years in high school, and now, they’re looking for a more personalized, in-person fall experience, and that’s what we’re really good at.
“I really see this as a very strong year for women in education and women in the work- force,” she went on. “And I feel that way for sev- eral reasons, starting with the fact that I hear women say, ‘we can no longer put on our lives on hold — we have to move forward aggressively, and part of our life plan is to make sure we have the right education.’
“But we also hear from employers that they’re very eager to fill their talent pipeline,” she went on. “They know our students, that they’re well-
“Fall of 2021 was actually
a very good enrollment period for us.”
approaching normal. Or continued
improvement, as the case may be.
“Fall of 2021 was actually a very good enrollment period for us,” said Dumay, add- ing that, after a slight decline in the fall of 2020, the first semes- ter after COVID made its arrival, the school
Harry Dumay says he’s confident about the way enrollment is trending at the Elms heading into 2022.
qualified and exceptional employees, and we’re working very closely with employers to make sure our curriculum provides our students with the strengths, capabilities, skillsets, and think-
      — bucking those national trends — saw record applications among traditional, first-time fresh- men, close to record acceptances, and one of the
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ECONOMIC OUTLOOK 2022
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