Declining Enrollment is Impacting Higher Ed Nationwide, but Not at NSU Florida
NSU has seen its undergraduate population increase at unprecedented rates for the past five years.
NSU is bucking the national trend of declining undergraduate enrollment and just welcomed its largest incoming class in its history—during COVID-19!
Over the past few years higher education enrollment stats across the nation looked bleak. Add COVID-19 to the mix and it was projected that universities would suffer further negative impacts on the number of students returning to campus this fall. But unlike its counterparts locally and nationally, NSU has seen its undergraduate population increase at unprecedented rates for the past five years with 2,001 new undergraduate students beginning classes just a few weeks ago.
“NSU is on the path to being recognized as a preeminent university and as part of that trajectory we have accomplished our goal of doubling the traditional undergraduate enrollment in just six years. We have done so by leveraging our accelerated degrees and our prestigious graduate and professional programs.” said Brad Williams, Ed.D., vice president of Student Affairs and dean of the College of Undergraduate Studies. “By focusing on these key areas, we have attracted high-achieving students who elevate the campus culture. We believe we will build on this trend for years to come.”
Using a multi-pronged approach to recruit and retain students, NSU saw its freshman enrollment rate increase:
- 27% in fall 2018
- 22% in fall 2019
- 11% in fall 2020
In addition to its enrollment rate rising, the retention rate rose to 80% from 74% in 2014, signifying that students are increasingly involved on campus and feel that their experience at NSU is giving them the edge they need to succeed.
As NSU’s undergraduate population increased, so did the quality of the students arriving on campus. Incoming students carry a 4.04 GPA average and have extensive club leadership experience, athletics participation and are actively engaged in their communities.
Students have indicated that NSU is offering high value and highly desirable programs that make them a force of nature when they leave our classrooms and set their sights on boardrooms. And, when you couple that with new policies and procedures implemented to aid in the safe return of students, faculty and staff to campus in the time of COVID-19, you can see why the university is seeing enrollment go up, when other schools are seeing it go down.
“When COVID hit our nation, I challenged our team to think outside the box to come up with solutions to enable our students to continue their studies, and faculty and staff to work safely, all while allowing for maximum choice. NSU invested more than $20 million to upgrade classrooms and common areas to provide flexible learning models in a novel way,” said Dr. George Hanbury, NSU’s president and CEO. “Innovative thinking led to our “BlendFlex” learning model, which allows students to choose to take their classes face to face with masks and physical distancing, or remotely, taught by the same professor at the same time. I cannot say enough about our faculty and staff who adapted quickly to the new normal—they are the reason our students came back, and I am proud of them.”