(Radio Iowa) — All three of the state universities are expecting fewer students this fall. During discussion of next year’s budgets for Iowa State, U-N-I and the University of Iowa — I-S-U president Wendy Wintersteen said the enrollment decline is a two-part issue. “I think last year, we were surprised by the large decline in international students, and we’re going to continue to be concerned by that,” Wintersteen says.

She says the decline in other students isn’t as surprising when you look at overall demographic issues. “I learned recently that during the Great Recession, there just weren’t that many babies born,” according to Winterstein. “So, we saw a decline in the birth rate and that’s clearly going to have an impact on higher education all across the nation.”

Fewer students means tuition revenue for each school. Iowa State University says student tuition supports seventy-percent of it’s general budget. At the University of Iowa it’s sixty-four-percent from student tuition. U-N-I reports that student tuition supports only forty-two-percent of the Cedar Falls school’s budget.