Virginia Tech officials are preparing for steep declines in some graduate student enrollment this fall and are offering voluntary severance packages, restructuring departments and analyzing program offerings as university leaders respond to the mounting enrollment pressures faced by colleges and universities across the country.
Provost Julie Ross anticipates a 20% decline in incoming Ph.D. students this fall, she told the university’s board of visitors in June, amid an already realized decline in students seeking master’s degrees.
The university remains in a period of intensified competition for students, declining federal research support and a sharp drop in international graduate student enrollment, she said at the June 1 meeting…