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Printer-Friendly ModeEnrollment, credit hours increase
September 19, 2005 —
A record 9,569 students will be attending SVSU this fall, marking the first time enrollment has risen over 9,500 students.
The number is up from 9,448 students a year ago, a 1.3 percent increase. Student credit hours also increased 2.53 percent.
According to President Eric R. Gilbertson, the increase was what the administration expected.
"The enrollment growth was just about what we anticipated," said Gilbertson, who explained that the amount of credits being taken is just as important as how many students are taking them while counting students.
Both increases are possible with a larger freshman class than last fall. The 2005 freshman class is 1,263 students, up from 1,241 last year.
Gilbertson said credit hours are up because of the specific growth in undergraduates, who "generally take more credits than graduate students."
Of the freshmen now taking classes, 41 percent had a high school grade point average of 3.50 or higher. There are 107 Presidential Scholars who were valedictorians or salutatorians of their high school, the third consecutive year the University will have over 100. ACT data for incoming freshmen has not been calculated yet, although Gilbertson anticipates that to be strong as well.
"We were pleased with the academic qualifications of the freshmen class," he added.
The largest growth by major seemed to be in Nursing, according to Gilbertson. He said there was a bit of leveling of the growth that had been previously seen in Education, and suspected it was in response to the job market for new teachers.
When asked about the possible influence SVSU's low tuition rate - compared to other universities - had, Gilbertson was hesitant to acknowledge a connection.
"It's really difficult to get a clear understanding of the relationship between tuition level and enrollments," he said. "There's no real good data in this regard - as a general matter we don't know why students go somewhere else, and so we can only guess."
He added that he does not see SVSU's tuition as a determining factor in a student's decision, but that tuition in general could force them to go elsewhere.
"My guess is that most students who plan to attend a public university don't make their decision as to which one on the basis of tuition rates," he explained. "Some may, however, decide to go to a community college on the basis of lower tuition."
The new high in enrollment consists of 7,244 undergraduate students, 1,638 graduate students, 471 teacher certification students, and 216 non-degree students.