The good news? Undergraduate enrollment this fall decreased only 0.6%, the least amount it has fallen since the pandemic started. The bad news? Enrollment in U.S. higher education institutions continues to drop.

No wonder a recent S&P Global Ratings outlook on higher ed is bearish on the industry, citing continued upward pressures on costs and downward pressures on enrollments and margins. This is a less-than-confident outlook from an agency that only examines 450 or so of the financially strongest colleges in the nation.