Overview

Among the three Access and Entry indicators, Post-Secondary Fall Enrollment and Technical College Fall Enrollment in the Southwest Florida region improved from last year’s report. Southwest Florida had a total post-secondary fall enrollment of 38,526 students in 2018, up 2.3 percent from the previous fall. Similarly, the region’s 2018 technical college fall enrollment increased 4.8 percent from the prior year to 4,516 students. It should be noted that post-secondary fall enrollment in the state of Florida decreased slightly, by 0.6 percent, in 2018. Data for the state’s technical college fall enrollment are not available. During the 2018-2019 academic year, the Southwest Florida region had 5,489 students complete a FAFSA application, for a FAFSA completion rate of 43.5 percent – down from 46.1 percent in the 2017-2018 academic year. FASFA completion rates in the state of Florida also decreased between these two academic years, from 49.3 percent to 45.7 percent.

FutureMakers Coalition FAFSA First! campaign had a significant impact on increasing FAFSA completion in the past. However, the program’s funding ran out in 2017, which may account for some of the decrease in FASFA completion. The FutureMakers Coalition will attempt to secure the necessary resources to restart FASFA First!, which showed promising results, and will look to other regional FASFA initiatives with which the FutureMakers Coalition may align to increase FASFA completion.

Data on post-secondary fall enrollment and technical college fall enrollment by race and ethnicity for Southwest Florida are also provided in this report. Between 2014 to 2018 in general, minority students in Southwest Florida – in particular among the Black and Latinx/Hispanic populations –represent a growing proportion of students enrolling in post-secondary education and technical colleges, resulting in a relative decrease in the proportion of students identifying as White. As the region’s population changes, post-secondary education institutions will need to adapt policies and procedures to reduce inequities in outcomes for students of color order to achieve the 55 percent goal of skilled working age adults with college degrees, workforce certificates, industry certifications, and other high-quality credentials.