Despite a 14 percent increase in University of Memphis tuitionthis semester, enrollment has risen.
Enrollment for fall 2003 is up 114 students over last year, witha total of 19,911 students. Of that figure, 15,209 areundergraduates.
This increase accounts for a little less than 1 percent of thetotal student population, which may seem insignificant until reallylooking into the different layers of enrollment and categories tofind out where this increase is meaningful, said William Akey,assistant vice provost for Enrollment Services.
There was an increase of 8 percent in the category of first-timefreshmen.
"Our first-time freshmen are up over last year, even with a 14.3percent increase in tuition," said David Wallace, director ofAdmissions. "Our returning students are also up. Our retention rateis higher even though tuition costs more."
A little over an 8 percent increase is good, considering newadmissions criteria have been recently implemented for incomingfreshmen. The new criteria uses both grade point averages and ACT/SAT standardized test scores to be fully admitted, Akey said.
"We were afraid that enrollment numbers in this category hadfallen, but actually it increased," said Akey.
The graduate program saw only a meager decrease in enrollment of35 students. The increase in tuition may have been a factor heresince graduate school tuition is higher than undergraduate.
Another reason may be a result of new regulations associatedwith student entry into the United States. There has been anational decline in international students seeking master'sdegrees, said Karen Weddle-West, assistant vice provost forgraduate studies.
"I am very pleased that there has been a steady pattern with nobig dips or gains in the graduate program even though we inTennessee have experienced a tuition increase over the past fouryears," Weddle-West said.
The graduate program saw its biggest enrollment decline inout-of-state students seeking master's degrees, perhaps because thecost of tuition is higher for out-of-state students. To counteractthis, however, the biggest increase in graduate enrollment comesfrom in-state students. Since the job market is sluggish, peopleare coming back to enroll in graduate school, Wendell-Westsaid.
Even the loss of 160 students from the non-degree-seekingcategory at The U of M did not have an affect on enrollmentexpansion. This category allowed students who only wanted to take ahandful of courses and not seek a degree to do so instead of takingloads of general education courses. The category was eliminatedfrom the curriculum because students were often not doing so well,Akey said.
"Given the significant increase in tuition, any increase inenrollment was welcome because we were concerned about anenrollment decrease," Akey said.
Another category that is surprisingly on the rise is thecontinuing student category because being an urban university witha large number of commuter students, the drop-in/drop-out ratetends to be high.
"Having an increase here is always positive," Akey said. "Maybewe're doing something right to retain students."
