Enrollment at Pensylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) universities continue to decease, slipping 1.5 percent to an estimated 110,600 students.
One of several PASSHE schools, Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) has seen a decline in enrollment.
IUP is composed of 12,130 undergraduate students and 2,239 graduate students, for a total of 14,369 students. This is a slight decline from their fall 2013 enrollment. In 2013, IUP had a total of 14,728 enrolled, 12,471 being undergraduate students and 2,257 being graduate students.
Compared to IUP, Slippery Rock’s enrollment has made a significant increase, while IUP has ran into a decrease of enrollment this year.
According to a recent article released by IUP, their Vice President of Enrollment Management and Communications, James Begany explained that trying to recruit new students is a campus-wide effort.
“While we are committed to meeting our new student enrollment goals, our focus continues to be getting students who have a high academic profile and who are the right fit for this university,” Begany said.
According to Mansfield University officials, enrollment has decreased by 218 students. Compared to a total of 2,970 students enrolled last year, this new school year has brought in a total of 2,752 students, 2,587 being undergraduate students and 165 being graduate students. Millersville University has also seen a decrease in enrollment this year by 3.3 percent. Although Mansfield and Millersville has a decline of students, IUP has suffered a greater decline of 359 students.
Enrollment at Clarion University started to see decreases in their enrollment in the fall of 2012 and it continues to decrease. Their undergraduate enrollment has decreased by 8.1 percent, from 4,373 students to 4,018. Their graduate enrollment has also declined by 16.4 percent, from 207 to 173 students.
Overall enrollment has decreased this school year for Shippensburg University, from 7,548 to 7,355 students. Their number of enrolled undergraduates has suffered a decline from 6,550 last year to 6,305 this year. Although the number of undergraduates decreased, their number of enrolled graduate students have increased by 52 students.
Although several PASSHE have seen a decline in their enrollment, Frank Brogan, chancellor of the PASSHE, is hopeful that enrollment will increase if the right changes are made. He stated that the highest priority of all PASSHE schools should be what they present to the students.
While some schools have seen a decrease in their enrollment, some universities have seen a slight bump in their enrollment.
The current enrollment at Slippery Rock is comprised of 7,608 undergraduate students and 918 graduate students, for a total of 8,526 students overall. Compared to last year, enrollment is up 1.52 percent, with undergraduate enrollment increasing by .51 percent and graduate enrollment increasing by 22.24 percent. First time freshman enrollment has also increased by 11.8 percent from 1,428 students to 1,597 students, which makes this the largest freshmen class in history for SRU.
Amanda Yale, Associate Provost of Enrollment Services commented that despite the declining high school demographics, increased competition and fragile economic recovery, Slippery Rock University has achieved positive enrollment gains this year.
East Stroudsburg University reported their first enrollment increase in four years. The increase in tuition is attributed to the 6.4 percent increase of incoming freshmen, making their total enrollment 6,812 students, up from last year’s enrollment of 6,778.
Compared to last year, West Chester University has seen a increase by 1.5 percent in their fall 2014 enrollment. The university has 16,086 students currently enrolled, with 2,351 of those students being first-year freshmen and 2,2242 being graduate students.
Other PASSHE schools such as Lock Haven University, Bloomsburg University, Cheyney University, Edinboro University, Kutztown University, and California University of Pennsylvania could not be reached.
