High Enrollment Numbers Push Texas State Into Fourth In Texas University Size

Texas State has become the fourth largest university in Texas due to a continued increase in enrollment.

The certified preliminary enrollment numbers of all the state’s universities were released at the Oct. 23 Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) meeting in Austin. This is the 17th consecutive year of record enrollment for Texas State. The university has moved into the fourth spot, and The University of North Texas now stands at fifth due to the change.

Texas A&M University is the largest higher education institution in the state with 56,602 students, according to preliminary enrollment numbers released by the coordinating board for the fall 2014 semester. The University of Texas at Austin is next with 51,341. The University of Houston follows with 40,914. Texas State University currently has 36,790 students.

“(The ranking) simply indicates that we had another positive year and that our enrollment grew by a little over three percent and that this has been a trend for us over the last eight to ten years,” said Michael Heintze, associate vice president for Enrollment Management. “We’ve had a steady run of significant enrollment increases over the last decade.”

Before receiving the numbers, Texas State officials heard the University of North Texas had grown somewhat but was close to having a level rate of enrollment, said Joe Meyer, director of Institutional Research.

“We were pretty close to the University of North Texas in enrollment last fall,” Meyer said. “I think we were maybe 600 or 400 hundred students below them. I can’t remember exactly, but they didn’t grow much, and we grew quite a bit, so we moved ahead of them this year.”

Total enrollment increased this year by 3.5 percent from 35,546 total students in fall 2013 to 36,790 in 2014, according to data from Institutional Research.

This fall, graduate student total enrollment increased 9.6 percent, according to Institutional Research data. Doctoral student total enrollment increased 1.2 percent. Total enrollment in the College of Liberal Arts increased the most by 16.4 percent. Enrollment in the College of Education increased 16.2 percent. Enrollment the College of Science and Engineering increased 14.4 percent.

Texas State’s movement to fourth-largest university reflects the “growing popularity” of the university among students and their families, said Provost Eugene Bourgeois.

“On the financial side, increases in enrollment do lead to increased revenues for the university in terms of more tuition and fees that are collected,” Bourgeois said.

Over 24,000 students applied for a place in Texas State’s freshman class this past year, Heintze said. Officials expect the increase to continue, Heintze said.

“When I walk across campus and see students studying in some of the green areas or The Quad, it’s pretty impressive to me because the university has a much more prestigious feel to it than 20 years ago when I was first starting here,” Meyer said.

The growing enrollment is a sign potential students recognize Texas State as a quality university and “a good place to go to school,” he said.

“It’s really gratifying and heartwarming,” Meyer said. “It’s amazing to me how much this place has changed over the years. Not only the quality of students but the diversity of students as well. Not only in traditional diversity measures like race, ethnicity and gender but also in the variety of personalities you see.”

It is possible Texas State’s new ranking as the fourth-largest university in the state will help officials obtain funding this upcoming legislative session, Bourgeois said.

“I do think that the legislature may really hold us in a favorable light based on the fact that we are helping the state meet access and success goals for the citizens of Texas,” Bourgeois said.

As an institution’s enrollment and student credit hours increase, the formula funding the university receives from the state and tuition money continue to increase, Heintze said.

“(This) is a helpful trend so that institutions can address the needs of the campus, whether it be adding faculty and staff or expanding facilities or renovating facilities and so forth,” Heintze said. “All of those things are, in part, driven by the dollars that are generated by the student body enrollment.”

Bourgeois said he does not believe Texas State will move to the spots of first- or second-largest university in the “foreseeable future” despite continuing record enrollment.

The certified enrollment numbers for universities will not be released until around the end of the fall semester, Meyer said.

Nicole Barrios is and Assistant New Editor for the University Star where this story was originally publish. It is reprinted here through a news partnership between the University Star and the San Marcos Corridor News.