UA to Temper Enrollment After Record-Breaking Year

University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College Chancellor Summer DeProw said her college is reviewing its programs to make sure they meet industry needs.

More than 7,000 students enrolled at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville last fall, a record-breaking year that the university would not like to see repeated.

The UA isn’t complaining about the high number of new students, which pushed its overall enrollment to nearly 31,000. With college costs rising and a demographic enrollment cliff looming in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, any two- or four-year university in Arkansas is happy to have enrollment growth.

But for UA officials, that positive trend must be throttled back ever so slightly. One of the chief concerns is housing costs. Monthly rates for rental units in northwest Arkansas have risen 7.6% to $926.55 over the past year, according to the Arvest Bank Skyline Report.

“I think the freshman class, our goal is to not be quite that big,” said Suzanne McCray, the university’s vice provost for enrollment management and dean of admissions. “We’re trying to reduce that number by a couple of hundred, maybe 300 students, just as a more comfortable fit with our housing. We are being a little more careful about making sure that our class size is exactly what we need from an infrastructure point of view.”

The UA’s goal is to bring in about 6,800 students in the next freshmen class. McCray said the university has received a record number of applications and is being intentional about focusing first on in-state students.

“It’ll be the second-largest class in our history,” McCray said. “It does allow us a little wiggle room as far as classes and housing and those types of things. That is really important.”

The UA is one of a handful of in-state institutions that saw an enrollment increase in the fall of 2022. Universities aren’t quite scrambling, but they are ramping up recruiting efforts as the number of Arkansas high school students decline. This enrollment cliff is expected to hit in earnest within the next couple of years. 

Spread the Word

Arkansas State University in Jonesboro saw its enrollment rise to more than 13,000, including 6,600 online students, although school officials point out that another 1,000 students attend ASU’s Campus Querétaro northwest of Mexico City. The university has expanded its regional recruiting efforts and hired a marketing firm to attract potential students from bordering states such as Missouri, Tennessee and Mississippi.

Thilla Sivakumaran

The expanded effort is needed because the state is not only seeing a drop in the number of high school students but also in the percentage of Arkansas high school graduates who attend college, said Thilla Sivakumaran, the university’s vice chancellor and director of enrollment management. Sivakumaran said the national average is 32%, but in Arkansas, 42% of high school graduates do not attend college.

“That is one of the reasons we have had to expand our reach because not as many Arkansans are going to college,” Sivakumaran said. “We are at close to 700 more admitted students than at the same time last year. I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch. 

“I think we are headed in the right direction. The changes we have made are helping. I think every year we need to tweak and adjust to the changing of the population.”

The University of Central Arkansas in Conway enrolled 9,913 students, a drop of about 200, but Vice President of Enrollment Management Kevin Thomas said UCA is in a “good spot.” The university’s goal is to get enrollment to between 10,000 and 12,000, and it’s focusing on in-state students with earlier and more hands-on recruiting.

“We are happy with where we are at after where we have been,” Thomas said. 

UCA relies heavily on in-state students. Thomas said more than 86% of UCA’s student body is made up of Arkansans, which is why UCA is reaching out to high school students before their junior and senior years in high school.

“The truth is that is not as early as it needs to be,” Thomas said. “We are doing what we can to start that relationship with students in the state earlier in the process.”

Focusing on Retention

An important part of enrollment management is keeping the students who are already enrolled. Every student who re-enrolls is one less to replace.

Some of that support starts before enrollment. At UCA, for example, potential students are given detailed information about financial aid and curriculum to better prepare them for any college shock. 

Summer DeProw

At the University of Arkansas-Pulaski Tech in North Little Rock, Chancellor Summer DeProw said the institution has nearly completed an in-depth review of its academic programs to make sure they are effective. As a two-year community college, UA-PTC has to be more flexible to adjust to changing industry needs.

“The first thing is a lot of our programs have taken a deep, hard look into the curriculum to make sure it is meeting industry needs,” DeProw said. “You must interact with industry experts. We wanted to make sure the curriculum was fitting the students’ needs to set them up for success. It has all been very focused, triple-checking everything to make sure the curriculum is going to help students be successful.”  

Like Arkansas State, DeProw said UA-PTC is set to make a marketing push this summer, once its program reviews are done, to increase its enrollment. UA-PTC had more than 10,500 students 10 years ago but has seen its enrollment drop to 4,213 last fall.

It is a “delicate balance,” DeProw said, because too much growth means expenses for faculty could then become unmanageable.

“We are trying to experiment with certain things to create some balance for students,” DeProw said. “Our budgets aren’t quite that elastic. 

“We have to be a bit more entrepreneurial, but at the same time, you have to keep the lights on.”