More Students are Choosing UAF

Submitted by Carla Browning
Phone: (907) 474-7778
02/28/03

The number of students choosing to attend the University of Alaska Fairbanks for the spring 2003 semester is up 12 percent overall from the same period as last year. Opening enrollment numbers for UAF’s spring semester show a 31 percent increase in first-time freshmen, a 29 percent increase in first-time graduate students and an 11 percent increase in total graduate student enrollment. The spring report is on the heels of an 11.5 percent increase in closing fall semester enrollment over the previous fall. The fall closing enrollment of 9,390 students is the highest since 1994.

Opening headcounts are an indication of growth areas. Closing numbers calculated at the end of the semester will be slightly higher as they reflect enrollments in short courses, many of which start later in the term.

"We seem to be retaining more first-time freshmen who decide to stay here into their sophomore year, and we’re seeing more new first-time freshmen overall," said Joe Trubacz, UAF’s director of Planning, Analysis and Institutional Research. "At UAF’s Tanana Valley Campus, growth continues in programs designed to prepare students for Alaska’s jobs, such as the oil and gas processing industry, health care and information technology, while an increase in federal research grants has had a positive impact on graduate school enrollment."

Enrollment Highlights 2002-03

´ UAF enrollment, which includes the Fairbanks campus and community campuses in Dillingham, Kotzebue, Bethel and Nome as well as the Interior-Aleutians and Tanana Valley Campuses, is up 12 percent overall.

´ The number of first-time freshmen is up 31 percent for spring 2003.

´ The number of first-time graduate students is up 29 percent and the total number of graduate students has increased by 11 percent.

´ TVC’s enrollment is up nearly 8 percent overall this spring.

´ Retention from fall-to-spring, first-time, full-time baccalaureate degree-seeking students is 87.9 percent, up 3.2 percent compared to the previous year. Fall-to-fall retention of this category of students was 70 percent, up 8 percent in fall 2002 from the previous year.

´ The highest closing enrollment in the history of UAF was 9,816 in 1985.

´ Systemwide the university saw an increase of 9.4 percent in the fall of 2002, for a total of 33,516 students attending one of the university’s campuses throughout Alaska.

Note to editors: UAF photo by Todd Paris. High resolution photo is available at http://www.uaf.edu/files/news/download/releasephotos/biostudents.jpg

CONTACT: Joe Trubacz at (907) 474-6088 or e-mail fnjt@uaf.edu, or visit the UA Budget and Institutional Research website at http://info.alaska.edu/oir/ for more information.