Record breaking enrollment at UAF

Submitted by Carla Browning
Phone: (907) 474-7778
01/23/04

More than 10,000 students are choosing to attend the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the highest number in UAF’s history. The closing enrollment of 10,487 for fall 2003 represents an 11.7 percent increase from the same period last year.

"We have more Alaska high school students choosing to stay in Alaska for their college education and more of them are staying in state after they graduate," said UAF Chancellor Marshall Lind."The number of students attending UAF is a testament to the kind of momentum we’ve been experiencing the last few years."

Part of the growth can be attributed to the success of the UA scholars program, which offers Alaskan high school students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their class a four-year scholarship to any campus within the UA system. The number of UA scholars attending UAF increased 21.6 percent last fall to 428 and the number of first-time freshmen was up 8.1 percent over the same period.

"Because of the larger number of freshmen on campus, we’re providing more core curriculum classes than ever before and looking at ways to better accommodate a larger number of students on our campuses," said UAF Provost Paul Reichardt. "The opening of the Tanana Valley Campus Center downtown has made room for some of our fastest growing programs, but we still need to finish work on the third and fourth floors to meet increased demands for workforce development programs, particularly in the areas of information technology and health care."

In addition, an increase in research dollars in areas such as biomedical and health initiatives has brought additional graduate students to UAF, the only doctoral-granting institution in the state. There were 1,079 graduate students enrolled at UAF in fall 2003, representing a 9 percent increase over 2002. A record 36 Ph.D.s were conferred at commencement exercises last May.

CONTACT: Carla Browning, UAF public information officer at (907) 474-7778 or e-mail carla.browning@uaf.edu for more information.