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The statue of John Harvard at Harvard U. as student left campus on March 14.

What Higher Education Has Endured for the Past Year

Colin Binkley, Associated Press
By the Numbers
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By  Audrey Williams June and 
Jacquelyn Elias
March 11, 2021

The pandemic has imposed a considerable price on higher education — on the finances of institutions and on the well-being of faculty, staff, and students, among other things. Here are some of Covid-19’s most notable effects so far.

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The pandemic has imposed a considerable price on higher education — on the finances of institutions and on the well-being of faculty, staff, and students, among other things. Here are some of Covid-19’s most notable effects so far.

$120 billion
$120 billion
Estimated new expenses incurred and revenue lost by higher education during the pandemic, according to lobbyists seeking aid from the federal government.
Source: Letter to Congress from the American Council on Education, December 2020
$77 billion
$77 billion
Money provided to higher education in three rounds of coronavirus stimulus relief.
Source: Text of legislation
$24 billion
$24 billion
Estimated new expenses, including Covid-19 testing, classroom modifications, and technology for virtual instruction, incurred by 107 colleges that are among those top-ranked by U.S. News & World Report.
Source: Paul N. Friga/HelioCampus, data collected from news released from March to December 2020
$225 million
$225 million
What the NCAA distributed to its Division I member institutions last June. The figure was about $375 million less than it had budgeted, mainly because the NCAA's biggest revenue producer — the men's basketball tournaments held during "March Madness" — was canceled because of the coronavirus.
Source: NCAA
22%
22%
College fund raisers who expected to meet their goals for the 2020 fiscal year, a prediction made just after the pandemic began.
65%
65%
Fund raisers who expected to meet their goals for the 2021 fiscal year when asked nine months later.
Source: Washburn & McGoldrick, April 2020 and January 2021
22%
22%
The decrease in high-school graduates going straight to college in the fall of 2020, compared with those who did so in 2019, driven mostly by a drop in low-income and urban high-school students.
Source: National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, December 2020
About 560,000
560K
The drop in the number of undergraduates enrolled in the fall of 2020, a 3.6-percent decrease from a year earlier.
Source: National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, December 2020
650,000
650K
Estimated number of jobs shed by colleges and universities from the pandemic’s start to the end of 2020 — more than 13 percent of the higher-education work force.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, February 2021
594%
594%
The increase, since 2018-19, in the number of colleges that made standardized tests optional for admission in the fall of 2020.
Source: National Center for Fair & Open Testing
About 40,000
40K
International students who chose to defer their fall-2020 enrollment to a future term.
Source: Institute of International Education
55%
55%
Faculty members who have seriously considered changing careers or retiring early since the pandemic began.
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education/Fidelity Investments survey, conducted in October 2020
90 minutes
90 minutes
Time for research that has been lost each day of the pandemic by female faculty members with children.
Source: Working Paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research by Tatyana Deryugina, Olga Shurchkov, and Jenna E. Stearns, January 2021
76%
76%
College students who said their mental health had worsened since the pandemic began.
Source: Active Minds, September 2020
More than 85
>85
The number of higher-ed administrators, professors, students, and staff members who have died of Covid-19 through March 1, according to news coverage and institutions' statements. Faculty members accounted for the largest number of those deaths, with 39.
56%
56%
The increase in coronavirus cases over a six-week period during the fall-2020 term at colleges of 20,000 students or more that opened for in-person instruction.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, January 2021
40%
40%
Students who lost a job, an internship, or an offer of either one due to Covid-19.
Source: Paper in the Journal of Public Economics by Esteban M. Aucejo, Jacob French, Maria Paola Ugalde Araya, and Basit Zafar, November 2020


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A version of this article appeared in the March 19, 2021, issue.
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Data
Audrey Williams June
Audrey Williams June is the news-data manager at The Chronicle. She explores and analyzes data sets, databases, and records to uncover higher-education trends, insights, and stories. Email her at audrey.june@chronicle.com, or follow her on Twitter @audreywjune.
Jacquelyn Elias
Jacquelyn Elias is a news applications developer for The Chronicle of Higher Education. She builds data visualizations and news applications. Follow her on Twitter @jacquelynrelias, or email her at jacquelyn.elias@chronicle.com.
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