The College Undergraduate Enrollment report provides a summary of undergraduate students enrolled at Michigan colleges and universities, searchable by college.

The report offers a closer look into the colleges’ and universities’ undergraduate classes, providing details regarding the proportion of students attending with the intent of earning a college degree, the age of the student, and whether or not the student graduated from a Michigan public high school the prior year. The undergraduate enrollment trend view becomes especially important relating to conversations of the economy and preparing students for the workforce.

The postsecondary school year for the report encompasses a year’s amount of data. Due to data collection and timing, the school year runs from May through April – includes the previous summer, fall, and winter/spring sessions.

Not every Michigan college and university is required to submit to CEPI, only the postsecondary institutions that submit data to Student Transcript and Academic Record Repository (STARR) are searchable in this report. CEPI collects data from every public college and university and a select few independent colleges. The actual number of students attending Michigan colleges and universities is higher than the statewide totals reflected in the report.

You can explore enrollment data for the entire state, for any of Michigan's public community colleges and universities, and for the independent postsecondary institutions that participate in the state's data collection. You can also compare one entity to another.

The report's selections can filter the data by gender and race/ethnicity, view counts or percentages, and see enrollment trends since the 2009-10 college school year.

Exploring the College Undergraduate Enrollment report can answer questions like:

Are there more men or women receiving higher education in Michigan?

Select All Colleges or the Colleges you wish to see under Edit Report/Find Location. Under Report Settings, choose Enrollment Type - Enrollment Type (All), then Report Category - Gender. To get a better sense of the numbers, choose Percentage view on the top left.

What percentage of postsecondary students are prior-year Michigan high school graduates?

Select All Colleges or the Colleges you wish to see under Edit Report/Find Location. Under Report Settings, choose the year you wish to view, College Type (All), and Enrollment Type - Prior Year Michigan High School Graduates. When your report appears, select Percentage in the view bar at the top.

Are there significant differences between the number of black students seeking degrees and the number of white students seeking degrees?

Select All Colleges or the Colleges you wish to see under Edit Report/Find Location. Under Report Settings, select the year and the College Type you wish to view, and then choose Enrollment Type - Degree Seeking, and Race/Ethnicity for your Report Category. Click Percentage View in the upper left when your report appears.

I'm considering two community colleges within driving distance. How can I compare their student size and makeup?

Under Edit Report/Find Location, enter the first school, then click Add Comparison to add the second school. Under Report Settings, choose Enrollment Type (All). The report will give you side-by-side comparisons. If you're comparing the Race/Ethnicity or Gender breakdowns of each school, Percentage view is most helpful.

The College Undergraduate Enrollment report includes the general composition of undergraduate students enrolled at a public Michigan college or university that submits data to CEPI - it's not limited to Michigan high school graduates like the Postsecondary Outcomes by High School reports for the K12 sector.  

Colleges and universities provide enrollment data for every undergraduate student who took a course or earned an award during a school year. Up until 2015-16, the reporting school year ran from May through April to match the collection of CEPI’s Student Transcript Academic Record Repository (STARR). Starting in 2015-16, the reporting school year now aligns with the fiscal year, July through June. There are no further exclusions from what is submitted to CEPI, regardless of their full-time or part-time status, the types of courses they enrolled in, or withdrawal status.  

Numbers reported here may differ from what colleges reported to IPEDS, Perkins/Activities Classification Structure, or Community College Services because of the different collection and report parameters. CEPI collects individual student-level data whereas other collections may be using aggregate data. This report is an unduplicated enrollment count for the academic year; it's not limited to fall enrollment.  Data for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years were pilot year collections. 

High school students who are taking postsecondary classes are included in the total enrollment counts, but they're not counted in the Prior Year Michigan High School Graduates subset because they haven't yet graduated from high school. 

Some historical data for community colleges and universities show that 100% of their students either were degree seeking or non-degree seeking, however data quality processes have improved over time and have found the appropriate definitions for submitting colleges.

Age categories were separated into age 24 and under and age 25 and older to be consistent with the National Center for Education Statistics' Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) age cutoffs. A student's age for the report year is determined using their age as of September 30 of that year. 

When report parameters include gender or race/ethnicity, the data reflect students in the subgroup (gender or race/ethnicity) in relation to the enrollment type group. In other words, if you request Enrollment Type - Degree Seeking along with Gender, the report will show you the percent of each gender who are seeking a degree (not the percent of degree-seekers who are female). Phrase your inquiries like this: "Out of all [gender or race/ethnic group], how many are this [enrollment group]?” For example, “Out of all Asians, how many are in the Age 25 and older group?"  

The data are collected in fall and the report is updated in the winter.  

This report was modified in 2014. In the past, CEPI only counted a student once, regardless of how many colleges and/or universities they may have been enrolled in. 4-year institutions were favored over 2-year ones, causing community college enrollment counts to appear low. Now a student is counted at every postsecondary institution they attended for a college-level report. (They're still only counted once for a Statewide report, to avoid duplication.) As a result, the sum of college-level enrollments will be greater than the number of Statewide enrollments.   

This modification has been applied to all available report years. As a result, any reports you generated before the 2014 modifications may not match reports you generate after the change. 

Data Definitions

School Year: The postsecondary enrollment year.

Enrollment Type: The number or percent of college students who are prior year Michigan high school graduates or other (not a prior year Michigan high school graduate); age 24 and under or age 25 and over; degree seeking or non-degree seeking.

Enrollment Count: The total number of all undergraduate students enrolled in Michigan postsecondary institutions.

Enrollment Percent: The percent of all undergraduate students enrolled in Michigan postsecondary institutions.

Prior Year High School Graduates: Undergraduate students who graduated from a Michigan public high school in the previous year.

Degree Seeking Status: Whether or not the student is considered by the postsecondary institution to be degree seeking or non-degree seeking. Degree seeking students are students enrolled in courses for credit and recognized by the institution as seeking a degree, certificate or other formal award. See Student Level Code in the STARR data manual to understand the detailed statuses that make up Degree Seeking status. 

Data Collection

The Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI) collected the data used to compile this report. The databases used include:

• CEPI's Student Transcript and Academic Record Repository (STARR), which is a collection agency within MSDS, to identify students who enrolled in a public Michigan 2-year college, university, or participating independent (nonpublic) postsecondary institution. STARR was also used to derive age, degree-seeking status, and demographics. Details can be found at CEPI's STARR collection web page.
• CEPI's Michigan Student Data System (MSDS), to determine if the student was a prior year Michigan high school graduate. Specific rules about the collection can be found in the MSDS Collection Details Manual.

Data Calculations

Total Enrollment Percent for a Subgroup = Subgroup Total Enrollment / Total Enrollment

Total Enrollment Percent for a Subgroup by Enrollment Type = Subgroup Enrollment Count / Subgroup Total Enrollment