"There is widespread alignment among politicians, many policy experts, and foundations that support higher education that the United States must drastically increase the proportion of Americans who enroll in and complete college -- now a centerpiece of the Obama administration's agenda. Without significant intervention, a federal study released Tuesday suggests, that common goal will be way out of reach," Inside Higher Ed reports. "A National Center for Education Statistics report released Tuesday projects key education data out to 2018 and estimates that college enrollments will increase by 13 percent by 2018, to 20.6 million, and that the number of associate and bachelor's degrees awarded by American colleges would grow by 25 and 19 percent, respectively. That growth would actually represent a slowdown from the pace of expansion in both enrollments and degree production since 1993, the study finds. (And it is conceivable that the United States would actually lose ground on college enrollment under this scenario, as the 13 percent increase in enrollment would occur at a time when the U.S. population is increasing by 14 percent.)"