East Central Reporter

Spring enrollment at Eastern Illinois University is again on the upswing. The Charleston, Illinois-based public regional university is reporting a spring-to-spring enrollment increase of 3.8 percent—approximately 326 students—from January 2022 to January 2023.

“EIU’s continued commitments to excellence, access and affordability is a hallmark of our storied institution,” said EIU President Dr. David Glassman. “Our enrollment management and marketing teams have done an excellent job to showcase EIU’s value and distinct position in Illinois’ higher education marketplace, and I’m excited so many future Illinois college graduates have chosen to call EIU home.”

The most significant areas of growth for EIU in spring 2023 are “exactly what we expected to see in a traditional spring enrollment cycle,” said Josh Norman, EIU Associate Vice President for enrollment management. They include:

• New (first-time) graduate students: up 5.9 percent
• New high school dual credit students: up 8.8 percent
• Total on-campus enrollment: up 3.3 percent
• Total new incoming freshman: up 4 percent

Increases in spring-to-spring graduate and undergraduate student retention helped contribute to a 1.7 percent increase in continuing students, which supports EIU’s broad student retention and success efforts while also reinforcing the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s (IBHE) commitment to fostering “A Thriving Illinois.”

Mirroring EIU’s most recent fall enrollment records, the university also set new enrollment records for spring in 2023 in the following areas:

• Total graduate student enrollment: 1,881; representing a 6.3 percent increase
• Total international student enrollment: 764; representing a 32.4 percent increase. The significant rise in international student retention follows last year’s repeal of a federal directive temporarily halting international student entry into the United States.

“Graduate and international enrollments continue to climb as a result of our excellent programs, our commitment to affordability, and EIU’s flexible approach to creating enhanced accessibility for our diverse student body,” said Dr. Ryan Hendrickson, L.M. Hamand Dean of the Graduate School. “Through online and hybrid program offerings and a promise to meet our students where they are, EIU is a true trailblazer in the graduate student arena, and a first-choice destination for students globally.”

According to the IBHE website, Illinois higher education institutions “have the power to take on the world’s problems, offer paths toward transformative change, and create better futures for individuals, families, and communities.”  Eastern Illinois University supports that vision, most evidently through EIU’s steady, incremental and strategic enrollment increases over the past six years. From spring 2017 to spring 2023, Eastern’s overall enrollment increase has increased 31 percent across all state-mandated reporting categories, unlocking opportunities for future EIU graduates to contribute their personal and professional talents to their communities and to Illinois’ large and dynamic economy.  

“The data continues to show that we are doing an outstanding job in recruitment and retention by meeting the dynamic needs of our students through quality programs and services, proactively responding to their existing and emergent needs, and being innovative and resourceful in our approaches to creating successful outcomes,” Norman added. “We invest in the success of our students every step of the way.”

EIU’s official spring 2023 figures come from the university’s 10th-day enrollment reports. Tenth-day enrollment reports are the nationally accepted standard for tracking university and college enrollments. Several of EIU’s standalone 10th-day enrollment reports are individually processed and combined to create a comprehensive university enrollment report that, once complete in its entirety, will be available at https://www.eiu.edu/ir/tenth_day_enrollment.php.

For more information about EIU, and to learn more about its growing assortment of programs and services, visit the university’s website at www.eiu.edu, or call EIU’s public information office at (217) 581-7400.

Original source can be found here