NH Business: NH Public Schools Face Enrollment, Graduation Shortages
New Hampshire public colleges, universities and high schools face enrollment and graduate shortages
Updated: April 28, 2024 7:12am EDT
work. I'm Fred Kocher. Look at this graph. This marks a downward trend in enrollment for the past four years in New Hampshire's university system. The orange line shows community college enrollment in blue, and the gray line shows high school graduates. Short-term initiatives currently recommended include a community college system as a single statewide university based within the state, automatic acceptance of high school students into community colleges, and employment for graduates to help with loan payments. This is the Lord's recruitment. Earn a 3-year bachelor's degree. program. Sponsored Work-Based Learning. Obtain industry certifications. Currently, a long-term effort is recommended to study her two systems under one board and board to expand online services. Investigate FSC's tuition freeze to help more working-age adults access more education. This led to a public higher education task force called by Governor Sununu to examine declining trends in college enrollment, declining net revenues, and changing demographic and workforce trends in New Hampshire. With a sense of urgency. The task force recommends changes to New Hampshire's university, college and community college system. Here we will introduce some of them. Stephen Appleby, Chair of the Public Higher Education Task Force and New Hampshire Director of Educator Assistance and Higher Education, joins me to share the April 2nd report. Ministry of Education. welcome. thank you. I'm glad to be here. Thank you for calling me. Your screen will display some of the 39 recommended plans that you and the task force have proposed to the Governor and the Legislature. Which is most important right now? I think the most important short-term recommendations really have to do with relaxing credit transfer and relaxing university acceptance. You mentioned that one of them is automatic admission for high school graduates in the state. And finally, I'm looking at combining, um, the, um, back office, um, tasks that both systems currently do independently, like payroll, things like that. I'm thinking of all sorts of things. oh yeah. This is a major overhaul that you are proposing to the Board of Governors of New Hampshire's entire university, college and community college system. Um, so, uh, when are these recommendations likely to be enacted in Congress, where should they be implemented, and when is that likely to happen? So some of these I think that could happen as soon as the next Congress. Congress is currently considering legislation that would adapt their oversight, public higher education oversight functions, and incorporate some of these recommendations into it. As you know, a number of items, such as both systems being under his one board and chancellor, suggest that a merger of his two systems could occur at some point in the future. Is that a realistic expectation? I think it's worth taking a look. As you know, the governor has a lot of trust in him. He gave us a little time to really focus. And our concern was that if we started talking about a merger, we would be ignoring short-term, uh, short-term items. But yes, it could happen in the future. But some of these steps will likely occur organically. Yeah. And the Legislature needs to be involved, and absolutely will be. It's very long, the intercongressional process is long, I think there will probably be hearings, or hearings between sessions, and I think there will be more hearings during the next fall session. Understood. Well, did you get any comments from the general public? Oh, yes. I received some comments. Well, it usually has to do with items like credit transfer and barriers for students to move between systems, especially since the cost of higher education in this state and across the country is enormous. Well, there are many students who can't do that. Well, that's the main concern with these recommendations and how they are implemented. But certainly for the next few years, academic performance is one of the key items in this report, and these administrative backend features that we recommend to help reduce the cost of the system and support educational achievement. Some of them will be integrated. Keep those costs down for students. What is your biggest concern going forward? Well, I think my biggest concern is that we're on an unsustainable path for the long term. That's OK in the short term, but in the long term, I'm worried that if we don't start acting now, it will be too late like other states. Well, it's too late in other states. Steve Appleby, Chair of the Public Higher Education Task Force and Director of Educator Support and Higher Education, New Hampshire Department of Education. thank you. If you missed any part of this information session about higher education in New Hampshire and upcoming changes.
NH Business: NH Public Schools Face Enrollment, Graduation Shortages
New Hampshire public colleges, universities and high schools face enrollment and graduate shortages
Updated: April 28, 2024 7:12am EDT
Fred Kocher, along with Stephen Appleby, director of educational support and higher education for the New Hampshire Department of Education, said New Hampshire's public colleges, universities, and high schools are facing enrollment and graduation shortages. Discuss the “sense of crisis'' caused by the situation.
Fred Kocher, along with Stephen Appleby, director of educational support and higher education for the New Hampshire Department of Education, said New Hampshire's public colleges, universities, and high schools are facing enrollment and graduation shortages. Discuss the “sense of crisis'' caused by the situation.
