University of Southern Indiana’s enrollment is up – and down, figures show

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University of Southern Indiana’s enrollment is up – and down, figures show

EVANSVILLE – The University of Southern Indiana touted increases in its overall and first-time freshmen enrollment on Monday. That uptick, though, doesn’t extend to its number of undergraduates.

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, USI tallied its total enrollment – undergrad, graduate and dual-credit – at 9,489: a 2.2% increase from last year. There were also jumps in first-time freshmen (up 3%), the number of students transferring from other schools (up 6.6%) and graduate enrollment itself (up 1.7%).

One figure the release doesn’t specifically state, though, is undergraduate enrollment.

When the Courier & Press reached out to USI, spokeswoman Kaylee Johnson put that number at 5,347: a slight drop from the same time in 2023, when

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That continues years of undergrad decreases at USI which, like schools across the country, has fielded fewer students since the 2010s.

In 2022, school officials reported 5,539 undergraduates – a 9.1% decrease from the 6,093 a year before. That itself was a 9.6% drop from the 6,739 in 2020.

When did USI enrollment peak?

The university set a record for total enrollment in 2011, when 10,820 students were counted on the rolls, according to Courier & Press archives. That was a more than 1,800-student increase from 2000, when the official enrollment hovered just over 9,000. And it was a giant leap from 1990, when total enrollment stood at 6,480.

But that ***** in higher education has deflated across the U.S. in the last decade or so.

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, total undergraduate enrollment nationwide dropped 15% between 2010 and 2021. The majority of that came in the teeth of the COVID-19 pandemic, when enrollment plummeted at some institutions – especially two-year colleges.

Those numbers have started to creep up again in the last two years,

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in January.

In the past, USI officials have attributed recent dips to everything from being more selective in its admissions – “USI is focusing on admitting students more likely to succeed here,” then-director of admissions Eric Ott said in 2012 – to the pandemic to

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Monday’s release, however, was optimistic, with officials praising the uptick in certain enrollment areas and lauding an increasingly diverse student body.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press:

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