After a two-year enrollment decline, the University System of Georgia’s student numbers are rebounding.
Chancellor Sonny Perdue said Wednesday that overall enrollment is up nearly 3% this fall, or 9,551 students, compared to a year ago. The numbers won’t be official for several weeks, but Perdue told the Georgia Board of Regents it appears the system “turned the corner” from the COVID-19 pandemic slide.
Preliminary numbers indicate the system is in “a post-COVID era,” Perdue said, and that “students understand they can get a real-value education.”
The University System enrolled 334,459 students last fall, a 1.8% drop from fall 2021. Enrollment also fell slightly, by 0.2%, the year before. The fall 2021 numbers marked the first systemwide enrollment decline since 2013.
Georgia’s public colleges and universities receive state money based on a funding formula that uses enrollment numbers as a key weight. State dollars currently pay for roughly 57% of the cost of educating a student, with tuition providing the remainder. University System officials recently gave a presentation to state lawmakers that the formula hasn’t kept up with inflation, including the cost to maintain buildings, more technology, security measures to prevent physical and cyber attacks, and services to help students who aren’t fully prepared for college classes.
In this year’s fiscal budget, lawmakers cut $66 million in state funding to the University System. University System officials in May said they would try to distribute state funding strategically to help smaller schools that can’t absorb reductions as easily as larger schools with more resources and capacity.
On Wednesday, Perdue said this fall’s enrollment increase means that the system won’t need to do as much mitigation by re-allocating funds, meaning that schools that have gained enrollment “will be able to keep more of their earnings.”
So far this fall, Perdue said 21 of the University System’s 26 schools have gained enrollment. He did not specify which schools saw increases, but he said all sectors, from the top-tier research universities to access colleges, are up.
State colleges, which are schools that award associate-level degrees and offer some bachelor’s programs, have seen the highest percentage increase of all sectors, with a 4.9% jump so far this fall, Perdue said.
The dual enrollment program, which allows high school students to take college courses, is up by nearly 3,000 students this fall.
The number of undergraduate students enrolled across the system increased by nearly 5,000 students, and the system has gained more than 4,000 graduate students, Perdue said.
Official enrollment numbers for this fall will be reported at the board’s November meeting.
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