Enrollment up in most colleges
LITTLE ROCK – Since last year enrollment has gone up at most of the publicly supported institutions of higher education in Arkansas.
The academic year began about a month ago and headcounts for this year are based on enrollment as of the 11th day of class.
The largest campus in the state is the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, which last year had more than 30,000 students enrolled for the first time ever. This year the university has more than 32,000 students.
The chancellor said that the university could have admitted 8,000 freshman but chose not to because of a lack of capacity. No deserving in-state students were denied, only those from out of state, he said. Commenting on the rapid growth at the Fayetteville campus, he said that he remembers in the 1990s when enrollment was about 15,000 students.
Arkansas State University at Jonesboro has a record number of students this semester, with 14,903. That is six percent more than last year.
The ASU system has increased enrollment throughout its system, with a total of 26,197 students. Henderson State University at Arkadelphia was the only one campus in the ASU system with a decline. It was a 15 percent drop, to 2,139 students.
The five two-year institutions in the ASU system at Beebe, Mid-South in West Memphis, Mountain Home, Newport and Three Rivers in Malvern, all had increases. Three Rivers had the greatest increase with 15.1 percent.
Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia set a record for enrollment last year, but this year’s increase was more modest. SAU has 5,128 students.
The University of Central Arkansas at Conway saw its attendance drop slightly. The campus has 9,790 students, which is 1.3 percent fewer than last year.
Arkansas Tech University at Russellville has a total enrollment of 9,397, which is about 1 percent less than last year. Enrollment was down at Russellville and up at the Ozark campus.
Enrollment at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith is up 2.5 percent since last year. The total number of students is 5,514.
The University of Arkansas at Monticello has 2,578 students this fall, an increase of 2 percent over last year.
Attendance went down again at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, dropping 11 percent to 2,117 students.
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock saw its number of students drop by about 1 percent, to 7,147 students. Due to an increase in full-time students combined with a decrease in part-time students, UALR has an increase of one percent in semester credit hours being taught.
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences has 3,275 students, up from 3,240 last year. Of its total, 356 students are at the UAMS campus in northwest Arkansas.
The University of Arkansas system’s online institution, UA Grantham, has 4,651 students. That is an increase of more than 200 students since last year.
Attendance at the UA Community College at Hope-Texarkana is up 9 percent. At Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas, enrollment is up 13 percent. At the UA Community College in Morrilton enrollment is up 18 percent. At UA Rich Mountain in Mena it is up 6 percent. At Cossatot Community College enrollment is up 5 percent and at the UA Community College at Batesville it’s up 13 percent. UA Pulaski Technical College dropped by 1 percent.