Fall semester enrollment reaches nearly 15,000

It’s official: UM has set another enrollment record.

UM has a total headcount of 14,921 this fall semester, which is 714 more than a year ago. It’s the largest one-year enrollment jump in two decades.

The institution also set a new record for full-time equivalent students at 12,757.73, which is 461.76 better than a year ago. (An FTE represents 15 undergraduate or 12 graduate semester credits.)

The picture isn’t completely rosy for UM, however. FTEs among nonresident students dropped 65.95 from last year.

“These figures for fall semester 2009 suggest the need for high quality higher education continues unabated in Montana and beyond,” UM President George M. Dennison said. “The numbers suggest that more people have recognized the need for additional education, an outcome I suspect is influenced by the difficult economic times. It also appears that the national economic burnout affected our nonresident enrollments. Preliminary analysis suggests that adult Montana students entered the University in greater numbers, and we retained first-year students in general at a significantly higher rate than in the past.”

Most headcount enrollment gains occurred at UM’s College of Technology, which has 464 more students than a year ago. However, those students are taking fewer classes, so FTEs at COT actually declined by 61.4.

UM’s main “mountain” campus had 250 more students than last fall. However, the FTEs jumped dramatically by 523.16, more than double the headcount increase.

“This result indicates that students on the mountain campus have opted to carry more credits and have successfully accessed classes,” Dennison said. “I applaud the efforts of the faculty to accommodate student needs.”