Spiraling Enrollments.

During the 1920s private and state universities enjoyed dramatic increases in enrollment. At the University of California, University of Georgia, and University of Minnesota enrollments nearly tripled between 1915 and 1930, while other universities doubled their numbers of students. Enrollments in the private colleges and universities also increased significantly during the 1920s.

Growth in Higher Education.

The doubling of enrollments in colleges and universities during the decade was accompanied by increases in private donations from $7.5 million in 1915 to $25 million in 1930 and a rise in support from state and local governments from $62 million to $152 million. These increases were reversed by the devastating stock-market crash and resulting economic crisis that came in October 1929, but by the end of the decade nearly 150,000 college and university degrees were being granted annually, and the physical-plant value of these institutions totaled nearly $2 billion.

Source:

Ellwood Cubberley, Public Education in the...