The Pennsylvania Association of Colleges
and Universities (PACU) publishes the Statistical Profile of Higher
Education in Pennsylvania on an annual basis to assist its membership
and all those concerned with strategic planning activities and with the
analysis of public policy issues affecting higher education.
The information included on this website
was reported by colleges and universities to the
Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) and then provided by PDE to
the federal Integrated Postsecondary
Education Data System (IPEDS). Some of the pre-1986 data were obtained
for purposes of convenience from the National
Center for Education Statistics and the
National Science Foundation. The definitions of the various data
categories in this statistical website are standard definitions used in
the IPEDS reporting structure to assure comparability with the data
reported by colleges and universities throughout the United States.
For purposes of this website, data
available for the most recent year are provided for each category along
with data for certain past years in order to reflect historical trends.
Whenever data were available, the years used for historical trends were
1978-79, 1984-85, 1988-89, 1994-95 and 1999-2000. Other years were
used when necessary due to the unavailability of certain data or due to
the incompatibility of historical data with the most recent data.
All tables and graphs indicate the years used for each dataset. Note
that enrollments by residence of freshmen, and enrollments by age for all
students, as well as information about staff, were not reported
until the mid-1980s. Moreover, enrollments by residence and age are
only reported every other year.
Information is not included in this
website for Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology and for institutions
that are classified in the PDE data system as theological seminaries.
Therefore, the totals for each higher education sector in this website
should be the same as contained in PDE reports, but the totals for all of
higher education are slightly higher in the PDE reports because of the
inclusion by PDE of the Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology and the
theological seminaries.
Finally, a few institutions have changed
sectors or sub-sectors during the period covered by data in this website.
Data for those institutions are included in the totals for the
institution's appropriate category for each reporting year. For
example, the data in this website for Williamsport Area Community College
are included in the totals for community colleges through 1987-88 and
then in the totals for state-related universities for 1992-93 and beyond
after it became affiliated with the Pennsylvania State University as the
Pennsylvania College of Technology in 1988-89. Likewise, the
information for Mount Aloysius College is included in the
subcategory of independent two-year colleges through 1987-88 and then in
the subcategory of independent four-year colleges and universities for
1992-93 and beyond due to its change from a two-year to a four-year
institution in 1991-92. All other such changes are indicated in
Appendix footnotes.
