A. Projecting Future Enrollment Growth among UNC Institutions Section II summarizes recent enrollment trends among the three higher education sectors in North Carolina. Section III describes demographic trends that will produce a surge in higher education enrollments comparable to that experienced when the baby boomers reached college some thirty years ago. It is the statutory responsibility of the University of North Carolina to extend the benefits of higher education to the people of North Carolina. The first step in preparing an enrollment plan for UNC during the coming decade is the development of enrollment projections.
Projections are only as reliable as the assumptions upon which they are based.
If any assumptions prove to be flawed, they and the projections they produce must be revised. Consequently, the enrollment projections that form the basis for the UNC enrollment plan will be reviewed annually and revised as necessary. UNC relies upon projections by independent sources for the number of potential students in various age cohorts. For older North Carolinians, UNC uses the most recent projections supplied by the U.S. Census Bureau. These projections represent potential demand.