The Institutes for Higher Learning and The University of Mississippi released preliminary student enrollment numbers for the 2013 fall semester, which showed Ole Miss enrollment to be the highest in the state of Mississippi and in the school’s history.
While the statistics indicated that higher education enrollment throughout the state’s public institutions is declining, The University of Mississippi continues to grow and thrive.
“Many other universities across the country have declining enrollment,” Ole Miss Chancellor Dan Jones said. “We continue to evaluate every year the opportunities we have and make rational decisions. We are pacing our growth to try to keep a reasonable balance between the infrastructure that we have in place and the number of students here.”
Accelerated growth of the School of Engineering and the Meek School of Journalism and New Media contributed to the seven percent growth of the Oxford campus and overall 3.5 percent increase in enrollment in the university’s six-campus system.
On the university’s six campuses, 22,286 students are enrolled, which is up 758 students from last fall, or 3.5 percent. On the Oxford campus alone, 18,423 students are enrolled, which is up 632 students from last fall, or 7.4 percent.
Additionally, the student body includes 3,579 new freshmen, up 6.1 percent from last fall’s class of 3,373, making this the largest freshman class for any university in Mississippi history.
Ole Miss Dean of Students Sparky Reardon praised the performance of the university in the face of declining national statistics, indicating that national enrollment has declined by 500,000 students this year.
However, he was quick to praise the work of university employees in every sector who worked to continue a 19-year trend of increasing enrollment, saying that this year’s enrollment is a testament to the hard work of many people. For Reardon, student retention was another bright spot for Ole Miss’ statistics, boasting 85.5 percent of the Class of 2016 that returned to campus this fall.
“Although recruiting and admissions are on the front lines, there are many people behind our success,” Reardon said of the importance of continuing to value community in the face of growth. “We have to work together everyday to make Ole Miss better than it was before, and that is why our students come back.”
This year’s freshman class represents every U.S. state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and 93 other countries.
“We are excited about the quality of that class, and are excited that more and more students want to come forward and to join this unique educational experience,” Jones said.
