Dive Brief:

• The collective enrollment of U.S. journalism schools dropped two years in a row for the first time in 20 years, for the school years ending in 2013, despite the growth of universities overall.
• The decline raises questions about the future of journalism education, the American Journalism Review reports.
• Researchers think the recent enrollment declines may be caused by negative publicity about layoffs in the news industry.

Dive Insight:

The Annual Survey of Journalism & Mass Communication Enrollments study, by a team from the University of Georgia, looked at total master’s and undergraduate enrollments among 485 U.S. journalism and mass communication programs. Enrollments declined 2.9% for the 2012-2013 school year, after a decline of 1.1% one year earlier. Before that, enrollments had climbed every year but two since 1993. Some individual examples: The Missouri School of Journalism saw enrollment fall 9% over a recent two-year period, then rebound after the university aggressively boosted financial aid. At Columbia College Chicago, enrollment fell 33% over five years, and at Indiana University-Bloomington, enrollment fell 20% over five years. The Indiana journalism program is merging with programs in other fields.