Fourteen years and counting.
That is the unprecedented streak of consecutive record enrollments at
Arkansas Tech University after the institution announced on Friday that
its fall 2012 enrollment is 10,972 students.
Enrollment at
Arkansas Tech has increased by 4.9 percent over the past 12 months.
Arkansas Tech has 8,939 students on its main campus in Russellville and
2,033 students on its Ozark campus.
Fall 2012 enrollment figures became official at the end of Thursday, which was the 11th class day of the semester.
Enrollment
at Arkansas Tech has grown by 159 percent since 1997. A then
school-record 4,840 students enrolled at the university in fall 1999.
Enrollment has increased ever since. Arkansas Tech went over 6,000
students for the first time in 2003 and the milestones have continued.
Tech surpassed 7,000 students in 2006; 8,000 students in 2009; 9,000
students in 2010; and 10,000 students in 2011.
“There is no
question that increasing the percentage of our adult population that
holds a college degree is the key to economic development in Arkansas,”
said Dr. Robert C. Brown, who is beginning his 20th year as Arkansas
Tech president. “At Arkansas Tech University, that is a realization that
we made long ago and we have worked ever since to meet that objective.
Our enrollment growth is an indication that our constituents find value
and quality in return for their educational dollar at Arkansas Tech. The
more telling fact is that our increases in degree production have
outpaced our increases in enrollment growth. That is a testament to the
academic ability of the students choosing Arkansas Tech and to the
outstanding work by my faculty colleagues.”
Arkansas Tech
awarded more than 2,000 degrees for the first time in school history
during the 2011-12 academic year. Annual degree production at Arkansas
Tech has increased by 151 percent since the year 2000, while enrollment
has grown by 112 percent over that same time frame.
With a
graduation rate of 42.7 percent, Arkansas Tech ranks No. 2 among all
four-year public colleges and universities in Arkansas.
Arkansas
Tech has achieved that track record while maintaining the most
affordable tuition and fees structure among the five largest public
universities in the state and while ranking last among all Arkansas
four-year universities in state funding distribution per full-time
equivalent student.
“In a world where efficiency is increasingly important, Arkansas Tech continues to do more with less,” said Brown.
And the “more” extends beyond the number of students enrolled and the number of graduates.
Arkansas
Tech was the first university in the state to fully implement Act 747
of 2011, a state law that requires the reduction of applicable
baccalaureate degree programs to a maximum of 120 credit hours.
Arkansas
Tech continues to add to its list of accredited programs, including
many in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
fields thought to be critical to growing the state’s economy.
Within
the past 12 months, Arkansas Tech received reaffirmation of
accreditation from The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central
Association of Colleges and Schools.
In a statement of
affiliation status for Arkansas Tech, The Higher Learning Commission
noted that no further reports are required and that no other campus
visits concerning accreditation from the North Central Association of
Colleges and Schools are scheduled before the next comprehensive
evaluation in 2020-2021.
“This is the cleanest bill of health
that The Higher Learning Commission can give to a university,” said
Brown. “To receive a report of this nature with no conditions and no
interim reports is virtually unheard of.”
Included in the fall
2012 student body at Arkansas Tech in Russellville are 1,501 first-time
freshmen. The Arkansas Tech Class of 2016 completed high school with a
cumulative grade point average of 3.23 and an average ACT score of 22.
This marks the 18th consecutive year in which the Arkansas Tech
freshman class has beaten the national average on the ACT exam.
For more information about Arkansas Tech University, visit http://www.atu.edu/.