• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

UB Graduate Student Enrollment Drops 4 Percent

Posted on: Wednesday, 2 November 2005, 09:01 CST

By Stephen T. Watson

The number of students enrolled in graduate programs and professional schools at the University at Buffalo fell 4 percent from last fall to the current semester, according to data from the university.

The drop of 383 graduate students -- from 9,438 to 9,055 -- is driven by the fact that a large number of students earned degrees in May, while fewer new students replaced them this fall. The entering class this fall shrank only slightly from the fall 2004 class, but both were smaller than the classes that enrolled earlier at UB.

"In general, I don't think this is down too much, in terms of being significantly down," said UB Provost Satish K. Tripathi, the school's chief academic officer. "This is a fluctuation that's not really a trend."

However, Tripathi and other officials said the university does have to settle on an optimal level of graduate enrollment as part of a larger planning effort for the future.

"The question is how do we manage enrollment now?" said Bruce D. McCombe, vice provost for graduate education and dean of the Graduate School.

UB's decline in graduate enrollment stands in contrast to its 1.8 percent increase in undergraduate enrollment this semester, to 18,165 students.

Graduate students at UB and other schools are a big part of academic life because they help faculty teach undergraduate courses and conduct research.

Master's-level students and those in the professional programs -- such as law, medicine and dentistry -- generally pay their own way. Doctoral students usually receive financial stipends.

At UB's peer State University of New York campuses, by comparison, Albany saw an increase of 1.2 percent in its graduate enrollment, while Stony Brook is down 1.3 percent.

At UB, enrollment this fall is lower than the target of 9,300 graduate students.

Enrollment in the Engineering School, Management School and some programs in the College of Arts and Sciences fell the most, McCombe said.

School administrators discussed the drop in graduate enrollment at the most recent UB Council meeting, in response to a question from Jonathan A. Dandes, a council member.

Officials there suggested that a drop in the number of international students -- driven by regulations put in place after 9/ 11 -- was behind the decline.

But the drop in international graduate students is only part of the explanation, said Stephen C. Dunnett, UB's vice provost for international education.

Total international enrollment in UB's graduate programs is down 184 students, or 8.3 percent, from the fall 2004 total, according to the Office of International Education. That's just under half the overall drop.

Overall, the number of returning graduate students is down by 333 from last year.

e-mail: swatson@buffnews.com

Source: Buffalo News

More News in this Category