Iowa universities report enrollment upticks this fall after pandemic slide

IOWA CITY — Following a pre-pandemic enrollment slide that COVID-19 aggravated in 2020 and 2021 — and amid long-term fears of falling off a looming “enrollment cliff“ — all three of Iowa’s public universities this fall are reporting student body increases.

The University of Iowa on Thursday — the 14th day of the semester, giving the campuses cushion to make official enrollment counts — reported a student body of 30,779, up from last fall’s 30,042 and from 2021’s 29,910.

With its 2.4 percent increase, UI leapfrogged Iowa State University to once again become the largest public university in Iowa — after ISU reclaimed that title last fall.

Just under UI’s total, ISU this fall saw its student body rise from 30,177 to 30,432.

And the University of Northern Iowa — which had been on a downward trajectory since its peak of 14,070 in 2001 to a modern-day low of 8,949 in 2022 — for the second-straight year bumped up, going from 9,021 in fall 2023 to 9,283 this fall.

It marks the first time UNI has reported an increase in consecutive years since 2010 — when enrollment was on a four-year incline from 12,260 in 2006 to 13,201 in 2010.

“In total, UNI’s overall student population represents all 99 of Iowa’s counties, 42 U.S. states, and 47 countries from around the world,” according to a news release.

UNI was the only of the three campuses this fall to report a slight dip in its freshman count — from last fall’s 1,552 to 1,546 now.

UI’s first-year count is 5,208 — up from 5,064 last fall and marking its third-largest in history; ISU has 5,906 freshmen this fall, slightly above last fall’s 5,859.

ISU’s freshman tally is up 16 percent from the pandemic-impaired 2020, when UI counted 4,510 freshmen — 15 percent below today’s number.

“After receiving a record number of applications, the enrollment management team partnered with faculty and staff from across campus to enroll this talented group of students,” UI Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management Brent Gage said in a statement Thursday.

The university Thursday didn’t share a total number for the students who applied to be admitted this fall. The number of first-time undergraduate applicants previously had fallen from a recent high of 28,494 in 2016 to 22,434 in 2021 — both of which were well below the median of the peer institutions with which the UI compares itself.

Undergraduate, graduate counts

UNI’s total increases can be credited to a 23 percent spike in its graduate student count this fall — from 1,279 to 1,567 — which is up 30 percent from its 1,210 graduate numbers in 2022.

Like its first-year students, UNI’s undergraduate count actually dropped slightly this fall from 7,742 to 7,716.

UNI officials have been funneling resources and effort into recruiting more graduate students — rolling out a new program earlier this year waiving “recently requirements” for any UNI students wanting to finish a graduate degree they had abandoned.

“We understand that life circumstances can change, and we want to make it as easy as possible for students to re-engage with their studies,” UNI Associate Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Graduate, Research and Online Education College Dean Stephanie Huffman said in February.

ISU, meanwhile, reported the largest undergraduate cohort of the three universities at 25,628 — up from last year’s 25,332 — while its graduate and veterinary medicine cohort dropped slightly from 4,845 to 4,804.

And the UI spread around its fall increases, reporting more undergraduate and graduate or professional students — 22,738 and 8,041, respectively, compared with 22,130 and 7,912 last fall.

Demographic highlights

Although a looming enrollment cliff resulting from an anticipated decline in high school graduates isn’t supposed to impact Iowa for several years — and isn’t expected to hit it as hard as other Midwest states like Illinois, Michigan and Ohio — Iowa’s public universities still are seeing enrollment shifts due to demographic variations and trends.

About 16 percent of first-year UI students this fall are from rural communities; about 19 percent report being the first in their family to attend college; and more than half arrived with transfer college credit.

Of ISU’s 5,906 first-year students this fall, nearly 21 percent are first-generation.

And UNI reports more than a third of its incoming freshmen are first-generation students — about 34 percent — with 90 percent of its total student body hailing from Iowa, including 1,377 of its freshman class.

All three of Iowa’s universities boast both their resident and non-resident students as points of pride — showcasing the campuses’ ability to educate Iowans while also bolstering the state’s workforce.

“The University of Northern Iowa continues to serve as an important recruiter for the Iowa workforce,” that campus reported Thursday. “A total of 528 students from states adjacent to Iowa are enrolled at UNI in 2024, an increase from 2023. Approximately 40 percent of graduates from adjacent states take their first job and stay in the state of Iowa, while nearly 80 percent of in-state UNI graduates take their initial job in the state.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com