In 2023-24, Virginia’s public and private nonprofit colleges and universities awarded 57,562 bachelor’s degrees, the same as the previous year.
- Public four-year institutions conferred 38,529 bachelor’s degrees, which was 483 fewer than the previous year.
- Private nonprofit institutions and ECPI conferred 19,033 bachelor’s degrees, 483 more than the previous year.
In 2023-24, Virginia’s community colleges and Richard Bland College conferred 17,165 associate degrees, 155 more than in the previous year. (The public and private four-year institutions conferred an additional 2,390 associate degrees.)
Together, the two-year institutions also produced 14,637 sub-baccalaureate certificates in 2023-24, an increase 2,241 over the previous year. (The public and private four-years conferred 1,302.)
Together, the public and private universities also produced 34,411 graduate and professional degrees (282 more than last year) and 4,820 post-graduate certificates in 2023-24.
In total, Virginia’s public institutions, Virginias Tuition Assistance Grant participating private colleges, and ECPI University awarded 132,287 undergraduate and graduate degrees and certificates in 2023-24, which was 2,387 more than the prior year.
Degrees in STEM-H fields (science, technology, engineering, math and health professions) continued to grow. Public institutions awarded 29,416 STEM-H degrees, or 39.7% of all degrees – the highest number and percentage ever. Private nonprofit colleges and universities awarded 10,914 STEM-H degrees, slightly more than the previous year, or 27.3% of all degrees.
The top four programs for bachelor-degree awards at public institutions are psychology, biology, computer and information sciences, registered nursing, and business /commerce (fifth). Business administration (sixth) follows closely. All six programs had at least 1,300 graduates in 2023-24; together these programs represent about 23% of all bachelor-degree awards at public institutions. Computer and information sciences was the fastest growing program, moving from sixth place in 2021-22 to third in 2023-24. With the exception of liberal arts and sciences (1,214 graduates), all other programs each had fewer than 1,000 graduates in 2023-24 (speech communication/rhetoric 972; political science, 959; the rest, below 800).
It is also worthwhile noting that while women earned more degrees than men over the period, men and women tend to enroll disproportionately in similar programs of study. For example, while psychology was the most frequently awarded bachelor’s degree for women attending public four-year institutions, it was eighth highest for men. Conversely, computer and information science was the most frequently awarded degree at public four-year institutions for men, but didn’t make the top ten most frequently awarded degree for women. These examples suggest a need to ensure Virginia’s education system is producing adequate talent for the needs of the future workforce.
The Top Jobs Act (TJ21) calls for the awarding, by 2025, of an additional 100,000 degrees to in-state undergraduates at public institutions and a “comparable increase” in degree awards at private nonprofit institutions. These awards represent an important intermediate step of The Virginia Plan for Higher Education’s target of 1.5 million degrees and workforce credentials between 2014 and 2030.
The Commonwealth will not meet TJ21’s degree-award goals, with only 23 more undergraduate degrees awarded in-state students compared to last year, while that is a substantial improvement over two prior years of substantial decreases. With one year remaining, Virginia will fall short by approximately 19,000 degrees at public institutions (assuming no growth and no further losses). This projected shortfall is predominantly the result of decreases in the annual award of associate degrees and a lack of growth in bachelor’s degrees since 2016-17. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the situation. The model that established the goal was based on the assumption of 960 additional in-state undergraduate degree awards each year, instead the average increase was 417-degree-awards added annually beginning in 2011-12.
While challenges remain for the Commonwealth to meet goals around student access and completion, this year’s degree report indicates that Virginia remains on pace to meet The Virginia Plan goal of having 70% of working-age Virginians holding a degree or workforce credential by 2030. To date, 957,684 undergraduate credentials have been awarded since 2014-15 with a target goal of 1.5 million by 2030, which includes 53,828 New Economy Workforce Credentials.