UA says women, foreign pupils up

Freshmen down by 5.1% from ’12

Fall enrollment at the University of Arkansas includes a smaller freshman class than last fall and fewer Arkansans overall, but the Fayetteville campus made gains in other areas it tracks, such as international students, Hispanics and the total number of minority-group students, according to a preliminary tally of its 11th-day head count.

The Fayetteville campus also saw female students outnumber male students for the first time in its recorded enrollment history, signifying that the state’s land-grant university has caught up to national trends.

The university’s 25,341 total enrollment is a 3.3 percent increase over fall 2012’s 24,537 students, and slightly down from the 25,365 students the university announced on the first day of fall classes. It marks the first time the student body has topped 25,000.

In fall 2012, the total student population increased by 5.8 percent.

Arkansas colleges and universities use the 11th day of classes as the snapshot for the official enrollment report, which will be submitted to the Arkansas Department of Higher Education later this month.

UA’s increased numbers come at a time when average enrollment at the state’s 33 public colleges and universities is down 2 percent, according to the Higher Education Department.

The UA report shows that 15,307 of the students, 60.4 percent, are Arkansans. Thus, UA likely must fulfill its ongoing growth goals by looking outside the state and country.

The percentage of Arkansans was down 0.7 percent from fall 2012, or 111 fewer.

“That percentage shrank a little bit because we had some growth from out of state,” said Suzanne Mc-Cray, vice provost for enrollment. Out-of-state students now make up 34.1 percent of the student body, and 5.5 percent come from other countries. The 15,307 in-state students, however, mean UA “is still strikingly Arkansan. And that is our mission.”

The university’s group of first-time, full-time, degree-seeking freshmen was down 5.1 percent this fall, from 4,574 in fall 2012 to4,339. This is the number used to calculate the six year graduation rate and other retention gauges, and makes up the bulk of the overall freshman class.

UA officials said a number of factors likely depressed the in-state and freshman-class numbers.

“The numbers of college-going students in high schools in Arkansas are flat,” McCray said.

With fewer Arkansas students feeding the state’s universities and colleges, the Fayetteville campus may lose some who, because of finances, choose schools closer to their homes.

Charles Robinson, UA’svice provost for diversity, said changes in the state’s lottery scholarship this fall - which included the awards for freshmen dropping from $4,500 to $2,000 - likely hurt not only the freshman enrollment, but other recruitment areas such as “underrepresented students,” which include minority group, low-income and first-generation college students.

The lottery scholarships were rolled into the existing Arkansas Academic Challenge scholarship program three years ago. At four-year universities, the awards now rise successively as a student progresses, from $2,000 the first year to $3,000, $4,000 and $5,000 in the sophomore, junior and senior years, respectively.

“Lottery helps with retention,” Robinson said. “I think it also helps with recruitment, and when it goes down, it hurts both areas.”

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

One group that saw a double-digit increase was the university’s international students demographic, according to the tally. This group increased 12.1 percent, from 1,237 students to 1,387.

The growth breaks down to a 13 percent increase for graduate students and an 11 percent increase for undergraduates, said Lynn Mosesso, director of graduate and international recruitment and admission.

The international student category encompasses foreign students of all races who study in the U.S. on student visas with the expectation that they’ll return home after earning a degree. UA does not factor this category into its minority-group enrollment numbers.

The increase of 150 students came about for several reasons, Mosesso said.

“We’ve been very deliberate in our recruitment of international students,” she said.

But UA initiatives and international trends also contributed.

The No. 1 growth area came about because of recent bolstering of the university’s longtime ties to Panama.

“There are 67 new Panamanian students on campus compared to last fall,” Mosesso said.

Of these, 32 were recruited because of UA’s Pre-Academic Program for SENACYT Scholars. SENACYT is Panama’s National Secretariat of Science, Technology and Innovation, the government authority in charge of national science and technology strategies, or the equivalent of the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Nearly 20 more Panamanians are now studying at UA because of its new executive Master of Business Administration program, offered through the Graduate School of Business in the Sam M. Walton College of Business, Mosesso said.

Another notable growth area in the university’s international student population is a 20 percent increase in the number of Chinese undergraduate students, from 64 last fall to 77, reflecting a trend in China to send not just graduate-level students to the U.S., but more of its younger students seeking bachelor’s degrees, she said.

“About three to four years ago we started noticing that the children of former Chinese UA students are now wanting to study in the U.S.,” Mosesso said.

For graduate and undergraduate international students combined, UA now has 116 countries represented on campus, with the top five countries by enrollment being China, India, Panama, Bolivia and Vietnam, Mosesso said.

Another double-digit increase was in Hispanic students, whose numbers rose 15.8 percent, from 1,301 in fall 2012 to 1,507, following another national trend. The increase was not as high as last year’s, however, when the Hispanic population grew by 21.8 percent.

MINORITY GROUPS

Robinson said he is disappointed in two other areas.

One was this fall’s overall gain in total minority-group students. The group - which covers blacks, Hispanics, American Indians, Asians, Hawaiians and “two or more races” - rose 6.2 percent, from 4,216 in fall 2012 to 4,479. But last year saw a 10.4 percent increase.

Robinson also cited a 0.5 percent gain in black students, who grew from 1,278 in fall 2012 to 1,284 this fall. That compares with last year’s 2.6 percent growth.

The university’s hope that lottery scholarships would help attract more minority-group students didn’t materialize, Robinson said. Just as with other groups, the lowered awards were likely one reason the minority-group gain was down.

“I think we’re doing a better job retaining students, but we’re having a tougher time recruiting students,” he said. “I think that that’s the answer for us.”

Another national trend that made its way to UA-Fayetteville is that of women outnumbering men on campus.

Last fall, female students made up 49.7 percent of the university’s enrollment.

This fall, male students make up 49.7 percent, with 12,601 students, and women are now in the majority at 50.3 percent, or 12,740 students.

This marks the first time in the Fayetteville campus’ recorded enrollment history that women have surpassed men, said Gary Gunderman, director of institutional research.

Arkansas, Pages 15 on 10/06/2013

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