The University is seeing record numbers of student enrollments, a trend that other Oregon University System universities are also experiencing.
Sept. 27 marked the highest number of students to set foot on OUS campuses in state history, with a head count hovering around 92,000 — a number that higher education officials expect to grow even more by the end of fall term and increase to more than 93,000 come the end of spring.
The University declared the unofficial number of currently enrolled students to be 23,389, a roughly 1,000-person, or over 4 percent, increase from 2009, in which the University welcomed 22,386 new and returning students to campus.
Roger Thompson, vice provost for enrollment management, credited the University’s booming numbers to the quality of its academic programs, with the state and national economic situation being an indirect cause.
“I think it’s a combination of things, and the economy has made students think about their future with an eye towards higher education,” Thompson said. “I am not a huge believer in the ‘enrollment is up because the economy is down’ idea … (and) I like to think it is more about the educational value we offer.”
According to the latest OUS statistics collected in 2009, the system has seen a 36 percent jump since 1999, representing a total increase of 24,233 students in a single decade.
These attendance records may be indirectly related to state and nation-wide economic uncertainty, which has kept Oregon universities on their toes and students convinced that enrolling into or continuing school is more feasible than reckoning with a crowded job market.
The universities themselves deserve partial credit for the high numbers because preliminary budget records show that Oregon schools have used tax breaks and stimulus dollars to help subsidize the cost of school and make it more affordable.
Portland State University, boasting perhaps the most impressive enrollment increase, expects its fall 2010 enrollment to top 30,000 by the end of the quarter, making for nearly 2,000 more students than projected in an OUS fall 2010 head count forecast released in January.
With such a large, unexpected jump, administrators at Portland State are beginning to question its maximum occupancy.
“We can accommodate that number,” Portland State Associate Vice Provost Agnes Hoffman told the Oregonian in a late-summer report. “But beyond that going forward, classroom space is a challenge and residence hall space is a challenge.”
Oregon State University officials announced in mid-September that the Corvallis campus expected upwards of 24,000 students to enroll for fall, exceeding the OUS start-of-year projections by nearly 2,500.
If this prediction holds true, Oregon State will see a 9.2 percent enrollment jump in a single year, squashing the previous fall’s record of 21,969 students.
According to OUS fall enrollment numbers spanning the last 10 years, more students have been frequenting Oregon campuses every year for the last decade.
OUS Chancellor George Pernsteiner commented on last year’s 91,580-student enrollment record, saying that increased higher education enrollment equated greater demand in Oregon.
“Despite the budget cuts taken by our public universities, the campuses have kept their priorities in the right place, which is on student instruction and support,” Pernsteiner said.
[email protected]