The University released its 15-day enrollment numbers for the Spring 2018 semester today, breaking down statistics for graduate, undergraduate and Firelands campus students.
Enrollment rates in the undergraduate, graduate and Firelands programs have all stayed relatively flat; growth this semester is bolstered by online programs.
“Our enrollment growth continues to be driven at our undergraduate main campus enrollment, as well as our eCampus, which is how we deliver most of our exclusive online degree programs,” Cecilia Castellano, vice provost for strategic enrollment planning, said.
The graduate program enrollment has dropped almost five percent this semester, and undergraduate enrollment has increased 0.6 percent. Firelands enrollment has dropped by three percent this semester.
Graduate students have seen a 59 percent increase in eCampus enrollment this semester, while undergraduate students have seen a 41 percent increase. This has coincided with a decrease in distance education programs, which are now moving towards online platforms.
“You’ll see the distance campus numbers are down, but that’s because distance used to be our delivery method for online courses,” Castellano said. “Now, we’ve moved to an eCampus, which is an eight-week carousel where students come in and take courses part time (for) eight weeks.”
With enrollment at Firelands and distance learning programs dropping, the University is pleased to see enrollment in eCampus courses increasing. The program will serve as another option for those looking to invest in higher education but need a more flexible schedule.
“Part of our strategic plan at the University is to continue to expand the quality education of a traditional four-year institution to working professionals that are interested in advancing their careers or getting retooled or recertified,” Castellano said. “We’re very pleased with how, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, those programs continue to grow.”
One of the statistics released highlighted that the projected persistence rate for the 2017 freshman on main campus was 91 percent; this comes after a fall report which said freshman enrollment was down.
“91 percent of the students returned, and that is right around where we were last year,” Castellano said. “As we continue to admit strong academic freshman classes, they continue to persist and retain at a stronger rate.”
One trend that has carried over from the Fall 2017 semester is a decrease in international graduate students. The University has continued to work with students to gain deferred acceptance, but troubles have risen when obtaining student visas.
“A little bit of the national rhetoric might be part of that, but also there are certain countries that we recruit from where students have had trouble getting visas — for example, India,” Castellano said. “We’ve been seeing that for the past couple of years. That’s just a trend that we’re seeing nationally.”
