University Of Arkansas Spring Enrollment Figures Indicate A Continued Climb In Overall Enrollment And An Increase In Returning Students

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - University of Arkansas enrollment continues to top that of last year. Total enrollment for the University of Arkansas spring 2000 semester is 14,371 for on and off-campus students. This is a 2.1 percent increase over the 1999 spring enrollment.

Spring enrollment is down 855 from the fall 1999 enrollment of 15,226 and is due mainly to students who have completed their degree programs during the fall. Drops in spring enrollment are typical for the University and are attributed to students who complete their coursework at the end of the fall semester and will graduate in the spring, and non-returning students. Of the 855 non-returning students, 610 or 71 percent of those were undergraduate and graduate students who completed their coursework the fall semester of 1999.

A breakdown is provided in the attached report outlines enrollment by academic classification, gender, ethnicity and by college.

First-time degree-seeking freshman enrollment is not included in the report, but those numbers indicate a 93.7 percent return rate from fall 1999 of 2,268 to spring 2000 of 2,126. This is an increase over the 91.1 percent return rate for last year, when 2,350 of the 2,556 new freshmen returned for the spring semester.

"Although a smaller freshman class entered the University last fall, an increase in the percentage of new freshmen returning for the spring semester attests to the increased quality of the students we are recruiting," said Arlene Cash, dean of Enrollment Services. "We are very pleased with the overall spring enrollment and believe the increasing quality of our students and the introduction of the first year experience program will lead to even greater retention rates in the years to come."

Returning freshman Chancellor's Scholars from fall of 1999 to spring of 2000 showed an increase to 98.7 percent from last year's return rate of 96.9 percent.