Upper Iowa sees seventh year of enrollment growth

FAYETTE - Overall enrollment at Upper Iowa University has climbed for the seventh consecutive year, according to the fall 2011 numbers released by the school this week.

The increases are led by a Fayette campus enrollment, at 999, and a jump in the number of international students both at the Fayette campus and at the UIU centers in Asia, President Alan G. Walker said in a statement.

As of census day, the total headcount university-wide is 6,822. Of that, 999 are students at the Fayette campus.

That's a 5.25 percent increase on the UIU primary campus since last fall, and a 48 percent increase since 2005. Among the Fayette students are 101 international students from 26 nations, a 77 percent increase from a year ago.

The UIU sites in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore have enrollment of 1,073, is a 4.8 percent increase over last fall.

"I am especially pleased by the strong increase we continue to see in the Fayette headcount,” Walker said in a statement. "There was a time in the 1980s when this campus was down below 300 and we were struggling. We have blown those numbers away and shown that Upper Iowa University is providing a quality education that students want."

In addition, 34 percent of the incoming class at Fayette is from out of state, with nearly 8 percent of them international students, Walker said.

Nearly two-thirds of UIU students are considered nontraditional, or over the age of 25. UIU saw a 5.6 percent increase this year in the number of graduate students, now at 487. Nearly 11.5 percent of all UIU students are veterans or active members of the military and their families; and 7.5 percent of students are simultaneously enrolled in UIU courses through a combination of multiple modalities – on site, online, or through independent study.