LANSING, Mich. — After three years of holding steady, enrollment at Michigan’s public universities slipped again this fall. The state’s 15 public campuses counted 254,107 students, down 5,223, or 2%, from 259,330 a year earlier, according to preliminary figures from the Michigan Association of State Universities.
Graduate programs took the biggest hit. Graduate headcount fell by 2,918 students, close to 5%, while undergraduate numbers dipped 2,305, a bit more than 1%. First-time freshmen were down 491 to 40,228. One bright spot: new transfer students rose by 115 to 12,993.
Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie had the steepest loss, falling about 14% from 1,440 students to 1,232. Northern Michigan University, also in the Upper Peninsula, lost close to 6%, and Eastern Michigan University dropped about 6% to 11,468. Ferris State, Michigan Tech, Central Michigan and Oakland each lost around 5%, while Grand Valley State fell by 653 students and Western Michigan by 635 students.
Michigan State University, the second-largest school, dipped nearly 2% to 50,941. Only three campuses avoided a decline: the University of Michigan, up about 1% to 54,181; U-M Flint, up about 2% to 7,258; and Wayne State, essentially flat at 24,182.
Dan Hurley, who leads the university association, pointed to two causes in the report’s release. Michigan is nearing two decades of shrinking high school graduating classes, and federal visa and travel policies have kept away international students, which he said shows up most clearly in graduate counts. He credited state aid such as the Michigan Achievement Scholarship with keeping the drop from being worse.
The longer trend is stark. Combined enrollment at the 15 schools peaked at 301,919 in 2011, fell through the pandemic, and had been roughly level since. A separate measure of full-time-equivalent students in the report was essentially unchanged at about 242,000.
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