4-Year Colleges Ride the Dual-Enrollment Wave

Inside Higher Ed

Liam Knox

December 2, 2024

A few years ago, Moravian University, a small liberal arts college in Bethlehem, Pa., made an unorthodox decision: It would offer courses to local high schoolers.

It started off small, a single partnership with Salisbury High School in nearby Allentown. In 2021, 14 students were in the program. But by 2023 Moravian had expanded to four high schools, and in the last year it more than doubled the number of high school students taking its courses—a practice known as dual or concurrent enrollment—from 33 to 72. Brian Martin, Moravian’s executive director of undergraduate admissions, said the university is working to expand the program to more school districts in the region.

“We’ve seen dramatic growth in the past year alone,” Martin said.

Moravian, like many four-year colleges, began its dual-enrollment program as an equity initiative to give local high schoolers access to higher-level courses. That’s still a key part of the mission, Martin said, only now they’re banking on an enrollment windfall, too.

That hasn’t happened yet. Only five of Moravian’s 530-student incoming class came via the dual-enrollment program, a re-enrollment rate of about 1 percent.

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