KEARNEY – Fall 2018 enrollment at the University of Nebraska at Kearney shows year-over-year increases in freshmen, online students and graduate students, with a total head count of 6,327.
That number, an overall 1.1 percent decrease from fall 2017 (6,398), includes a 4.4 percent increase in first-time freshmen (944); 27 percent increase in online bachelor’s degree enrollments (377); and 2.3 percent increase in graduate students (1,843).
Among other data items of note on the official counting day (sixth day of the fall semester):
- After a mid-year decision to offer in-state tuition in Colorado and Kansas, enrollment of freshmen from Colorado more than doubled (up 18 students) while Kansas freshmen enrollment was flat. Overall, UNK has 170 students enrolled from Colorado and Kansas.
- Graduate enrollment (271 full-time and 1,572 part-time students) has increased each of the last five years. Full-time graduate enrollment is up 3 percent, with part-time up 2.2 percent. Graduate programs that are offered mostly online, but some on campus, continue to show strong demand.
- Distance-only students increased 7.2 percent, to a record high of 1,997. Many UNK students also take a combination of on-campus/face-to-face and distance-delivered courses.
- Students are enrolled from 92 of 93 Nebraska counties, and 52 countries.
- Re-enrollments of previously attending students increased by 43 students, or 40 percent.
UNK’s overall enrollment is affected by two additional factors: UNK’s last three graduating classes have been the largest in the school’s history, a reflection of continuing strong retention rates, which are considered a key indicator of institutional success. And, this is the first year the university is not counting dual-enrolled students, which are high school students taking college coursework at UNK for credit. UNK’s total students in 2017 (6,644) would have been 6,398, had dual-enrolled students not been counted.
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Enrollment across the four University of Nebraska campuses and the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture in Curtis this fall is 51,883. That represents the fourth-highest total in NU history and a 1 percent decline from fall 2017.
University of Nebraska’s fall 2018 enrollment figures
– University of Nebraska-Lincoln: 25,820 (1 percent decrease)
– University of Nebraska at Omaha: 15,431 (1.9 percent decrease)
– University of Nebraska at Kearney: 6,327 (1.1 percent decrease)
– University of Nebraska Medical Center: 3,970 (1.6 percent increase)
– Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture: 335 (5.7 percent increase)
