NSU enrollment down

Source: American News, Aberdeen, S.迷你倉D.Sept. 25--After experiencing enrollment growth in the past few academic years, Northern State University saw a 7.7 percent decrease in its number of students this fall.Most of the 279-student loss can be attributed to part-time students, said President Jim Smith of the 3,343 students enrolled at NSU.The number of full-time equivalent students at Northern is slightly down, with a loss of about 28 full-time students.Full-time equivalency is calculated by taking the total number of credits taken by students and dividing by 15. Fifteen credit hours per semester are required to graduate in four years."Northern has spent time focusing and recruiting our full-time equivalencies," Smith said. "You'll see a slight decrease there, which tells us the students we have lost were part-time or ultra part-time students, with some taking as few as 1 or 2 credit hours."The number of students on-campus at Northern is up, and there was an increase in graduate students as well.Graduate enrollment rose 30 percent, with about 250 students registered.The number of incoming freshman and transfer students has risen, he said.Energy has been dedicated to students seeking graduation, Smith said. The South Dakota Board of Regents has seen a 33 percent increase in the number of graduates since 2005.This year's freshmen class saw more high-achieving students, with the number of students receiving the WolfPACT scholarship tripling.The four-year scholarship guarantees a certain amount of money based on ACT scores earned. Ninety-one students who are receiving the WolfPACT scholarship scored a 28 or above on the examination, according to a release.NSU retained about 72 percent of WolfPACT students, Smith said."Whenever you have more students who are on campus taking more credit hours, those are generally the students we retain to graduation," he said. "But we don't want to be foolish and not attract part-time students, either."There are also 15 students this year, up from five last year, who received the President's Meritorious Scholarship, awarded to students who earned scores of more than 30 on the ACT.International enrollment is up, with 24 countries represented this year. Of those countries, 10 are being represented for the first time.Smith said he'll continue analyzing the numbers, particularly when it commini storages to part-time students. Some are simply taking a few classes for licensing purposes or getting recertified. Others may have entered the full-time workforce, he said. The abundance of jobs in the Aberdeen area might contribute to that."Everybody's working who wants to be working," he said. "There's an allure out there to take jobs that are available to them."Smith said the school may track some students or use focus groups to figure out how to attract more part-time students.South Dakota State University and the University of South Dakota also saw similar headcount drops attributed to part-time students, while experiencing increases in full-time equivalent students.Total numbers in the South Dakota Public University System also mirror that slight drop in enrolled students and the steady amount of full-time students."At the end of the day, the number of graduates we produce is the really important indicator," said South Dakota Board of Regents President Jack Warner. "It helps South Dakota improve its education attainment rate and fuels workforce and economic development prospects for the state."At NSU, the 2013-14 numbers are a starting point. Admissions officers already are looking for students who will become Wolves in fall 2014."We're going to continue to analyze what we do and we're going to maximize the number of young men and women we can get here to take more credit hours," Smith said.Follow @kaynguyen on Twitter.S.D. Public University System Enrollment Numbers: Fall TermThe historical trend of headcount and full-time equivalent enrollment in South Dakota's entire public university system, dating back to 1996:Year Headcount Full-time Equivalent1996 26,508 22,3471997 25,719 21,7141998 26,560 21,9171999 26,616 21,6062000 27,134 21,6162001 28,446 22,3392002 29,533 23,0082003 29,716 23,6052004 29,844 23,5342005 30,720 24,0892006 30,901 24,1442007 32,148 24,5122008 32,943 24,9262009 33,779 25,4682010 36,440 26,6252011 36,103 26,7202012 36,430 26,4682013 36,365 26,782Source: S.D. Board of RegentsCopyright: ___ (c)2013 the American News (Aberdeen, S.D.) Visit the American News (Aberdeen, S.D.) at .aberdeennews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services儲存