Of the 182 colleges that responded to an AoC survey, 46 experienced a five to 15 per cent drop in the number 16- to 19-year-old learners on their books.
Colleges warned that the scrapping of education maintenance allowance (EMA) payments for students in the first year of courses is one of the key reasons behind the drop.
Other factors include competition from other providers, cuts in per student funding and lack of affordable transport, colleges claimed, with 60 per cent of institutions reporting a drop in spending on transport by their local authority.
But the Department for Education (DfE) disputed the AoC research, warning that it sampled too few colleges to be reliable.
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