Can University’s Enrollment Reach 15,000?

By Joseph Marks, Grand Forks Herald, N.D.

Jan. 28–UND has the buildings and infrastructure to serve 15,000 students, but that kind of enrollment surge isn’t on the horizon, one university official says.

UND’s strategic plan calls on the university to enroll 15,000 students by 2010, with about 12,500 of those students attending on campus and the remaining 2,500 students attending online or through other distance education options, said Alice Hoffert, UND associate vice president for enrollment management.

One benchmark toward that goal was to have 14,000 students enrolled by 2005.

Hoffert said the 15,000-enrollment goal reflects the number of students the university could enroll based on its financial and space capacity, not the number of students it is likely to enroll based on state demographics.

“It’s a stretch goal for us,” Hoffert said, “something we never said we think is attainable. But we’ll put resources toward accomplishing it.”

UND made rapid enrollment gains in the first years of the century, growing by nearly 600 students some years. Enrollment peaked at 13,187 students in 2004 and slid to 12,834 this fall.

University officials attribute the enrollment drop to stiffer admission standards instituted in 2005 and large graduating classes. But UND also may be experiencing the first symptoms of a statewide population drop.

The Chronicle of Higher Education projects the number of students graduating from North Dakota high schools UND’s biggest single source of entering freshmen to drop 23 percent over the next 10 years, one of the steepest declines in the nation.

Minnesota and Montana, two major sources of UND students, are projected to see smaller drops in high school graduates.

UND hopes to make up for some of that loss by recruiting more students from out of state and aggressively marketing distance and online education courses to place-bound adults. But Hoffert said enrollment generally is projected to stay flat in coming years.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Grand Forks Herald, N.D.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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