From one public university reversing pay raises to new research modeling how many colleges will close in the future, here are the top-line figures from some of our biggest stories of the week.
By the numbers
306
How many employees at Ohio State University will have their recent pay raises reversed in January. The U.S. Department of Labor's expansion of overtime eligibility in July prompted the public university to bump salaries, but administrators said they would roll back those increases after a judge struck down the new rule.
80
The additional number of colleges expected to close each year if enrollment abruptly plummeted by 15%, according to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. However, a more gradual 15% decline would lead to roughly five additional institutions closing each year.
61.1%
The share of students who graduated within six years after starting college in 2018, according to new data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. That marks a 0.5 percentage point improvement over the 2017 first-year student cohort.
2%-4%
The net tuition growth that Fitch Ratings is expecting in the 2024-25 academic year for most of its rated colleges. But the modest growth comes as colleges compete for a limited pool of students, and the credit rating agency issued a “deteriorating” outlook for the higher education sector in 2025.
18%
The share of Brown University’s incoming first-year students from historically underrepresented backgrounds this fall, down 9 percentage points from last year. The Ivy League is rolling out several recruitment initiatives aimed at improving student diversity.
