Chancellor Doug Kristensen
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It’s another good year at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, according to UNK Chancellor Doug Kristensen. For the third consecutive year, enrollment has increased.
“Our numbers continue to grow, and the overall freshman ACT average is at an all-time high,” Chancellor Kristensen said. The overall freshman ACT composite score average is 22.2, and total number of students enrolled stands at 6,445, a 1 percent increase over last year’s total of 6,382.
Further, fall enrollment at UNK includes students from every county in Nebraska, as well as 45 states and 42 foreign countries.
“We will be analyzing the results carefully as we enter a new recruiting season,” he said. “We still have some recruiting challenges and opportunities, but overall we seem to have maintained a stable and steady course.”
“Our Honors program continues to attract top students from across the state,” Chancellor Kristensen said. “The average ACT for freshmen in our Honors program is 28.2, another all-time high.” Those scores are underlined by recently released U.S. News and World Report rankings, which noted that 53 percent of the freshmen who attend UNK graduated in the top 25 percent of their high school graduating class.
Areas of growth include the numbers of transfer and graduate students. Transfer student enrollment increased by 7.8 percent this fall, with the highest number of students coming from the Central Community College and Mid-Plains Community College systems.
On the graduate level, enrollment is at the highest level since 1996. First-time graduate student enrollment increased by 28.7 percent (from 384 to 494). Much of the increase can be attributed to the growth in on-line classes.
UNK has increased on-line offerings to replace those face-to-face classes that were previously available in numerous Nebraska communities, but were lost through budget cuts in recent years. Currently, master’s degrees in biology, educational administration and instructional technology are all available on-line.
“The number of students who take only off-campus courses rose 24 percent this year to reach the highest level since 1996,” Chancellor Kristensen said.
“We have worked to increase on-line offerings to meet the needs of placebound Nebraskans,” he concluded, “and the response has been strong. We not only have students from across Nebraska, but also from nearly 40 states, Canada and even Singapore.”
