Colleges & Universities Industry Profile

Institutions in this industry offer academic and professional courses and confer baccalaureate or graduate degrees. Major US-based institutions include public university systems in states such as California, New York, and Texas, and private universities such as Duke, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and New York University; leading institutions outside the US include the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, both located in the UK, as well as the University of Tokyo in Japan, and the University of Toronto in Canada.

There were about 20 million students in 2024 with about 75% enrolled in public institutions, according to the Education Data Initiative.

In academic year 2021-22, there were 3,542 degree-granting postsecondary institutions in the US with first-year undergraduates, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Two-year colleges are covered in the Community Colleges industry profile. Business, secretarial, technical, and trade schools are included in the Education & Training Services industry profile.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Declining enrollment, caused in part by rising tuition, is holding back revenue growth at many US colleges and universities. Schools are competing more intensely for qualified applicants, and many are employing new highly targeted marketing strategies to increase yield rates — the percentage of accepted applicants who choose to attend. While institutions with large endowment funds are generally more financially secure, below-average investment returns are weakening overall purchasing power. However, many schools have increased spending from endowments to pay for student financial ...