Preliminary numbers show first-time undergraduate enrollment this semester fell from fall 2021, with overall enrollment down 1.9%.
From UCA’s all-time high in enrollment in 2015, which sat at 11,754 according to UCA’s institutional research web page, enrollment has fallen by 15.7% to 9,913, as listed on a recent UCA news release.
First-time, full-time undergraduate enrollment is 1,801 students, according to preliminary data found in the Sept. 12 news release. Fall 2021 saw 1,854, according to UCA’s Bear Facts page online. The only time that first-time, full-time undergraduate enrollment dropped below 1,800 in the last six years was in 2020, with only 1,715 first-time, full-time undergraduate students enrolled.
The news release said the new class is likely “the second-largest incoming freshman class among all four-year institutions in the state, according to preliminary data.”
In the news release, UCA President Houston Davis said about the new freshman class, “their average high school GPA of 3.63 is second historically only to last year’s incoming class by just one-hundredth of a GPA point. They are poised to excel inside and outside the classroom.”
“Student credit hours are down 1.5% fall ‘22 compared to fall ‘21. … The budget was built on a -4.2% decline in SCH based on our forecasted -3.6%,” Davis said. “We are very pleased to be well inside of our forecast.”
Overall student credit hours in fall 2022 are 123,285, according to institutional research. Undergraduate credit hours fell by 1,996, while graduate credit hours rose by 190 from 2021, according to preliminary and official numbers from institutional research.
Retention rates rose fall 2022, according to the news release. “Student retention has been a key focus of enrollment management efforts at the university,” the news release said.
From fall 2021 to fall 2022, the university retained 74.1% of first-year students, according to the news release. This is compared with 70.7% from fall 2020 to fall 2021, according to UCA’s institutional research page.
Institutional research’s official numbers from fall 2021 and preliminary numbers for fall 2022 show that sophomores were the only classification that grew, having gone up by 128.
The news release also said that this semester is seeing more transfer students. New transfer student enrollment this semester is 552, marking three years of increasing transfers, according to the news release.
“It is our growth in retention of students and attractiveness to transfer students that is most exciting,” Davis said in the release.
Transfer agreements with two-year institutions, like UCA’s Bear Partners, have contributed to the majority of the increase, according to the news release. Bear Partners is a program where students from Arkansas State University-Beebe, University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton and UA Pulaski Technical College can participate in campus activities before transferring with an associate degree.
While overall enrollment fell, graduate enrollment rose by 3.1% to 1,919, according to the news release.