While universities and colleges across America as reporting declines in attendance, the same can’t be said for Christian schools of higher education, the Daily Caller reports.

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reports that since 2020, the number of students attending universities and colleges across the US has declined 4.2%.

While it is easy to blame COVID for the decreased enrollment, there was also a 1.1% decline in the fall of 2022, when the pandemic was largely over.

Meanwhile, over the same period of time, many Christian colleges and universities were reporting increases:

• Hillsdale College reported an increased enrollment of 16% in fall 2021 with applications up 53%;
• The University of Texas, which has a deep commitment to the Catholic faith, set records for enrollment in the fall of 2021
• Liberty University, an evangelical college located in Virginia, set an enrollment record in 2021 with a 20% increase and even saw a 10.5% increase in 2020 over 2019 during the hottest period of the pandemic.
• Benedictine College in Kansas (also not nominally Catholic) reported record enrollment in 2022.
• Thomas Aquinas College in New England reached its maximum capacity during the pandemic and needs to hire more teachers to facilitate the demand.
• In 2021, Oral Roberts University recorded its 13th consecutive year of increased enrollment at the school. Meaning it also grew in 2020 in the midst of COVID.

So while it is easy to blame COVID for the reduced enrollment in secular schools, if it was solely to blame, then the Christian schools should have seen declines as well, but they didn’t.

This tells us that other issues are also contributing to the declining attendance in secular schools.

READ: While Students Flee Public Universities, Christian Schools Are Only Getting Bigger AND Liberty Sets Student Enrollment Record in 2021 AND ORU Announces 13th Consecutive Year of Enrollment Growth