The campus of Oregon State University is quiet during a summer break, but enrollment this fall jumped 8.2 percent and OSU's international student population surged 38 percent.Oregon's public universities are bulging this fall with record high enrollment of 96,960 students, a 5.9 percent increase over last year.
The addition of 5,380 students to the
marks the highest percentage increase since 2001 and the third year in a row that the system has seen growth exceeding 5 percent.
The enrollment surge could be a lifesaver for Oregon universities by giving them a boost in revenue that will help them weather expected declines in state funding over the next two years. That boost was enhanced by the influx of an additional 727 new freshmen and transfer students from out-of-state, who pay up to three times the tuition that Oregon students pay.
"It is great news for the (university) system and for Oregon that we continue to enroll more and more students," said Paul Kelly, president of the
Betsy Selander, 21, a senior English major at the
, where enrollment climbed 4.5 percent this fall, says she's noticing more classmates. Her landscape architecture class has about 150 students, "more students in the class than there are seats," she said, forcing some students to stand or sit in the aisles.
"There is also never anywhere to put a bike" on campus, she said. "Bike racks are jampacked this year."
Most of the enrollment increase can be attributed to larger classes of returning students and higher student persistence. The number of existing students returning to classes this fall climbed by 4,004. The percent of freshmen returning for their sophomore year reached 82.4 percent, up from last year's freshman retention rate of 81.7 percent.
The university system also enrolled 1,376 new students, but 649 of those were nonadmitted students, mostly high school students taking university courses in dual enrollment programs.
Enrollment changes varied widely among campuses, from a 3 percent drop at
to increases of 8 percent at Oregon State University, 10 percent at
and 26 percent at
Portland State University continues to command the largest enrollment at 28,522 students.
Scarcity of jobs in a weak economy, steep tuition hikes in neighboring states, smoother paths from community colleges to state universities, more high school students taking dual enrollment courses from state universities and fewer university dropouts all have contributed to the enrollment jump, university officials say.
Oregon universities drew more students from out of state, particularly California, in part because of enrollment caps and tuition increases at California public universities and sharp tuition increases in Washington, said Bob Kieran, the university system's assistant vice chancellor for research.
Southern Oregon University went after California students with more aggressive recruiting, winning a 38 percent increase in students from the Golden State. Southern also tried to draw more students in a variety of other ways, said President Mary Cullinan.
The university, for example, upgraded its web site, used social media such as Facebook to recruit students, more than doubled its online courses, opened a center near Rogue Community College in Medford, and developed an accelerated track that enables students to earn a bachelor's degree in three years. The school also expanded its advising services to help students, both academically and financially, remain enrolled, Cullinan said.
Southern's enrollment growth "is the result of a very, very systematic, intentional process that we've been working on for a couple of years," she said. "We've really come at it in every way."
Two thirds of the 727 additional undergraduate students in the university system this year are transfer students, most from community colleges. That reflects the effort university leaders have made to align course requirements so that it is easier for students to make the transition from community colleges to state universities, said George Pernsteiner, OUS chancellor. He said he also was encouraged by seeing Cullinan's success at boosting Southern's enrollment and by the improved freshman retention rate.
s more modest 2 percent enrollment growth probably reflects new admission policies that make it more difficult for marginal students to get admitted. In the past, the university sometimes admitted students even when they didn't meet every admission standard. The university is now focusing more on supporting marginal students so they succeed and graduate, said Dan Fortmiller, associate vice provost for academic and career services.
Oregon Institute of Technology was the only campus to have an enrollment drop. Most of that 3.3 percent decline, however, was because of a drop in high school students taking dual enrollment courses through OIT.
International student enrollment at Oregon's universities grew by 20 percent in 2010 to an all-time high of 5,733 students representing 127 countries. Students from China led the increase. Oregon State University's international student population grew 38 percent to 1,548 students.
Gov. Ted Kulongoski said in a prepared statement that the state's university enrollment growth will help build a stronger Oregon.
"I am pleased to welcome our largest class of college students in Oregon history," he said.