The College Undergraduate Enrollment report provides information about undergraduate students enrolled at Michigan colleges and universities.
The report displays the count or percentage of Michigan undergraduate students in the following groups:
- Age 24 and Under vs. Age 25 and Over
- Degree seeking vs. Non-degree seeking
- Students who graduated from a Michigan public high school in the prior year
CEPI collects data from every Michigan public college and university, as well as independent colleges. Only postsecondary institutions that submit data to CEPI through the Student Transcript and Academic Record Repository Collection are included in this report. The actual number of students attending Michigan colleges and universities is therefore higher than the statewide totals reflected in the report.
The report is updated in late spring. See the Recently Posted Reports page for when the report was last updated.
Historical Changes
- Beginning with the 2023-24 academic year, CEPI's Student Transcript and Academic Record Repository included the new Unreportable Gender Indicator (UGI) as an interim solution to enable acquiring a Unique Identification Code (UIC) and matching of student records for whom a gender of Male or Female is unknown or unspecified. Previously, this gender designation referred only to students reported by the National Student Clearinghouse, which does not report gender data to CEPI. For records where the UGI is submitted, gender will only be used for UIC assignment and matching purposes and will be replaced with “U” (Unspecified) in the state longitudinal data system for reporting purposes. The UGI will not be stored in the state longitudinal data system, nor will the student’s UIC master record be changed.
- Beginning with school year 2018-19, independent colleges had the option to “opt in” to public reporting and submit all student records to CEPI. Those who opted in are included in this report beginning with that school year.
- Starting in 2015-16, the reporting school year now aligns with the fiscal year, July through June. (Prior to this, the school year was from May through April.)
- Prior to 2014, students were only counted 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 generated before 2014 may not match reports generated after the change.
- Some historical data for community colleges and universities show that 100% of students either were degree seeking or non-degree seeking. Beginning with school year 2017-18, data quality processes improved to correct this reporting issue.
Use the Location and Report Settings to select a location, school year, college type and enrollment type. For specific enrollment types, you can also select report category by race/ethnicity and gender.
Data view options include:
- Snapshot (a graph and table of the selected data)
- Trend (a graph and table showing changes over time)
- Entity Breakdown (a table shows the data for the selected entity and related entities)
See the MI School Data Quick Start Guide for the basics of navigating the site and customizing a report.
Location Options
These options can be customized in the Location and Report Settings.
Locations Setting options: Statewide or individual college
Logged-in Users
Users with secure access who are logged in can see unsuppressed numbers for the entities for which they have been specifically authorized.
The Center for Educational Performance and Information collects the data for this report via the STARR Collection in the Michigan Student Data System. Colleges and universities provide enrollment data for every undergraduate student who took a course or earned an award during a school year. For more information on the MSDS application and reporting rules, please see the MSDS Collection Details Manual on the STARR web page.
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. The 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years were pilot year collections.
High school students who take postsecondary classes are included in the total enrollment counts, but are not counted in the Prior Year Michigan High School Graduates subset because they haven’t yet graduated from high school.
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 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. For example, if you request Enrollment Type - Degree Seeking along with Gender, the report will show 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]?”
If you have questions not addressed here or in the linked resources, please contact CEPI customer support at cepi@michigan.gov.
Disclosure Avoidance
To protect the privacy of individual students, CEPI uses data suppression rules whenever report settings would yield fewer than 10 students in a given group. Secure users can log in to view unsuppressed data for their authorized location.
Report Labels
See the glossary for additional terms and acronyms used on MI School Data.
Degree Seeking Status: Whether the student is considered by the postsecondary institution to be degree seeking or non-degree seeking. Degree seeking students are 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 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
