AU VP expects enrollment to continue rising in Fall '21

By Chris Rickerson | Staff writer

Augusta University enrollment has continued to increase even through a global pandemic. 

“AU’s enrollment has increased more than 15 percent since 2015, averaging an annual increase of 2.8 percent,” said Susan Davies, vice president for enrollment and student affairs at AU. “The fall 2020 enrollment at Augusta University represented a 3.1 percent increase over the fall 2019 enrollment, even in the midst of a pandemic.”

Davies said that an increase in enrollment is expected again in the fall based on the fall 2021 registration data.

Despite an overall decrease in undergraduate enrollment nationally, Augusta University undergraduate enrollment increased last fall.

According to National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, spring 2021 enrollment for undergraduates declined 3.5 percent overall across colleges. However, graduate numbers have increased 4.6 percent.

This is also the case at AU, where graduate-level enrollment is up nearly 300 students for the coming fall semester.

Unlike other colleges, Davies says AU has been able to keep total undergraduate enrollment numbers up as well. 

“In fall 2020, the total undergraduate enrollment grew by about 1.3 percent over fall 2019,” said Davies. 

Registration for the fall semester is still on-going. Fall classes begin on Aug. 11, and traditionally, many students register late. So, enrollment numbers are still not final for the upcoming semester. 

“We don’t have the final numbers right now, but we are projecting to be up about 200 students,” said Neil MacKinnon, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at AU. 

Davies also said that Augusta University is expecting about a 200-student increase overall, although the university is not quite there, yet.

One concern for AU is that freshman numbers did experience a slight drop in fall 2020 compared to fall 2019. 

“Freshmen numbers were slightly down in fall of 2020,” said Davies. “Many students may have chosen to attend a college closer to home during the pandemic.”

New academic programs have been added for fall 2021 including a master’s in data science, a master’s in epidemiology and a doctorate in computer and cyber sciences.

MacKinnon says AU has had meetings and are looking to add new degrees that appeal to upcoming freshmen. 

“Earlier this year, we had seven new programs that were proposed and we’re funding the top four ideas,” said MacKinnon. “The idea is to continue to develop new programs that would be appealing to new freshmen.”

AU continues to try to attract new students with new programs, offering more classes online and showing new students the value of a college degree.

“With the selection of majors that we offer, combined with the value of the AU degree, AU is regularly named to Forbes’ ‘Top 10 Low-Profile, High-Value College’ list, as well as Washington Monthly’s ‘Best Bang for the Buck’ list,” said Davies. 

Another concern is lagging transfer numbers, but again, the final tally for this fall will not be known until the drop-add period ends.

AU President Brooks Keel has a 16,000-student goal for 2030. Toward that end, the university is launching a new marketing campaign titled “Like No Other.” Posters are beginning to show up on campus promoting this marketing theme.

Contact Chris Rickerson at crickerson@augusta.edu.