In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, total postsecondary enrollment in colleges and universities in New Jersey fell 6.7% from the spring of 2022, higher than the national drop of 4.1%.
Within the city of Newark, higher education institutions experienced an even greater drop of 9% in undergraduate enrollment, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Within Newark, 18.4% of teens and young adults aged 16 to 24 are considered to be “disconnected,” neither working nor in school, a rate which had been declining for several years until the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the trend.
The Newark City of Learning Collaborative and the New Jersey State Policy Lab, which is a partnership between the Edward J. Bloustein School of Public Policy in Rutgers-New Brunswick and the School of Public Affairs and Administration in Rutgers-Newark, have developed a qualitative study to explore how institutions and communities within the city of Newark might reengage “COVID-disconnected” youth between the ages of 18 and 26.
