The University of Tennessee System hopes the policies will boost enrollment across its four colleges at a time when many institutions face heightened competition over students. Higher education leaders have long braced for an expected dropoff in high school graduates starting around 2025 due to declining birth rates during the Great Recession.
“We have, as everyone knows, a shrinking pool of high school graduates,” Randy Boyd, the University of Tennessee System’s president, said during Friday’s meeting. “Because of that, we need to be more proactive, we need to be more aggressive at attracting that shrinking pool.”
