As of August 29, 2024, UCA has seen a 4.66% increase in total student credit-hour production, with significant growth in undergraduate credit hours and a notable 25.07% increase in the first-year freshman cohort compared to last year. The overall student headcount has risen by 2.97%. First-year retention rates have stabilized at the same level as last year, with underrepresented student retention up by 1.91%. The first-year to third-year retention rate has slightly decreased by 0.85% from the previous year.
Attached is the Unofficial Fall 2024 Enrollment Report, effective August 29, 2024. These numbers will likely only slightly dip over the next week until we hit our census date. That would be a trend that follows each start-of-term time frame after the first week of classes has concluded.
Please note that the use of gender and ethnicity headings aligns with the reporting requirements of IPEDS for official university reporting. Institutional Research provides all official data and reporting. All official data should come from Institutional Research.
Headcount and Credit Hour Information for Fall 2024
As of August 29, 2024, student credit-hour production is +5,701 credit hours (+5,882 undergraduate, -282 graduate, and +101 concurrent), an increase of 4.66%. As you will see below, when not including concurrent credit, we are seeing an increase of 4.63%.
| Student Credit Hours | Fall 2024 | Fall 2023 | Plus/Minus | Percentage +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Undergraduate Credit Hours | 111,652 | 105,770 | 5,882 | 5.56% |
| Graduate Credit Hours | 14,831 | 15,113 | -282 | -1.87% |
| Total Student Credit Hours | 126,483 | 120,883 | 5,600 | 4.63% |
No Concurrent Credit Hour Information
| Student Credit Hours (no concurrent) | Fall 2024 | Fall 2023 | Plus/Minus | Percentage +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Undergraduate Credit Hours | 111,685 | 106,236 | 5,449 | 5.13% |
| Graduate Credit Hours | 14,747 | 15,068 | -321 | -2.13% |
| Total Student Credit Hours (no concurrent) | 126,432 | 121,304 | 5,128 | 4.23% |
As we head into our second week of classes, our first-time, first-year cohort of freshmen is 2,190 for the fall semester – a 25.07% increase from last year. As a reminder, our cohort last year would still dip by about 25 over the next week.
| Student Type (Headcount) | Fall 2024 | Fall 2023 | Plus/Minus | Percentage +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First-Time Incoming First-Year | 2,190 | 1,751 | 439 | 25.07% |
The current student headcount shows an overall increase of 291 students (+331 undergraduate, -57 graduate, +17 concurrent), amounting to a 2.97% increase from the previous year. Concurrent enrollment registration is ongoing but we expect the final concurrent enrollment number to be an increase of 40-50 students compared to last year (380-390 overall)
Retention and Student Success Information
It has been a bit of a journey to reach this point but we are currently retaining our fall 2023 first-year students at the exact same rate as the fall 2022 cohort. We are currently retaining our first-year students to their second year at UCA at 73.43%, which is the same percentage from a year ago. Our underrepresented first-year student retention remains up 1.91% at 68.95%. The first-year to third-year retention rate at UCA stands at 62.76%, a decrease of 0.85% from last year’s rate of 63.61%.
When considering fall-to-fall first-year student retention retaining to their sophomore year, the following are the top UCA performers over the last 20 years:
- Fall 2019 Cohort – 78.8% – This is the cohort where after the spring of 2020, we made exceptions for students to return to UCA due to the pandemic.
- Fall 2018 Cohort – 74.7%
- Fall 2021 Cohort – 74.2%
- Fall 2017 Cohort – 74.1%
- Fall 2022 Cohort – 73.5%
- Fall 2023 Cohort – 73.4% – As of August 29, 2024
- Fall 2019 Cohort retained to Fall 2021- 63.8% Retained
- Fall 2021 Cohort retained to Fall 2023 – 63.6% Retained
- Fall 2018 Cohort retained to Fall 2020- 63.5% Retained
- Fall 2017 Cohort retained to Fall 2019- 63.0% Retained
- Fall 2022 Cohort retained to Fall 2024 – 62.76% Retained – As of August 29, 2024
- Fall 2020 Cohort retained to Fall 2022 – 60.0% Retained
The final unofficial enrollment report will be next Friday, September 6.