SUU Leads Enrollment Growth in Utah for 2016

Posted: March 31, 2017 | Author: President Scott L Wyatt | Read Time: 1 minutes

Congratulations—and thank you—to all our friends at SUU! We led enrollment growth in Utah this past fall (2016) over the prior fall (2015)—again! The Commissioner’s office just released the “end-of-term” numbers for all schools in Utah. SUU’s total enrollment for last fall (2016) was 9,598, a growth of 4.95%. Looking specifically at the total Budget-Related enrollments (excluding students in self support programs), SUU led the state with a 13.6% increase! The next closest school to us was Snow College, who grew by 6.41%. Half of the schools in Utah were down in enrollments or flat from the prior year.

The growth of student enrollments at each university is counted in many ways. The most important and reliable number is this “end-of-term” count. It is added up after the semester is over, submitted to the Commissioner’s office for verification, and then reported by them to the Board of Regents as comparison data. Because these numbers are not collected and released until well after the semester is over the press doesn’t generally report them. The press prefers to report preliminary numbers, which are less reliable, but more timely. It’s understandable.

The bottom line—the great people at SUU are working hard and delivering an incredible experience for our students. Prospective students recognize this and are coming in increasing numbers! Not only are we growing, our students are finishing well. We have the highest graduation rate among regional universities in the eight Intermountain West states, again this year, and an example from one of our programs, I just learned that 28 of the 31 students at SUU who applied to medical school for this fall have been accepted already! Wow! That’s better than 90%! (Show me another university with a rate that high.)