University of Arkansas and NWACC seeing enrollment increase

by Samantha McClain and Delaney Reaves

On Jan. 31, NorthWest Arkansas Community College announced an unofficial count of 7,418 enrolled academic-credit students. There has been an increase of 15.9% compared to the 2022 spring semester unofficial count of 6,402, according to the press release.

According to the 2022 – 2023 NWACC Fact Book, in Fall 2021, 7,037 students are the official headcount and in Fall 2022, 7,593 are students’ official headcount. In Sept. 2022, Liz Kapsner, associate director of communications, said that 9,475 students were projected to attend the Fall 2022. NWACC estimated there to be 2,438 more students than the preliminary count. The unofficial number predicted a 10.9% increase, but according to the NWACC factbook, there was only an official 7.9% increase.

In 2022, the college’s student residency reported 4,273 students from Benton County and 2,576 students from Washington County. Benton County had a 442 student increase from 2021 to 2022 while Washington County had a 93 student increase.

According to the 2022-2023 NWACC Fact Book, in Fall 2022, 1,417 new freshman entering undergraduate attended NWACC 9.3% increase than 1,297 new freshman in Fall 2021. 2,546 continuing students from 2022 attended NWACC but it is a -2.7% decrease from 2,616 continuing students from 2021. High Schools students attending NWACC and still enrolled in highschool, 2,458 students attended at NWACC in 2022 which is a 25.2% increase from 1,964 highschool students attending NWACC in 2021.

The unofficial count for the spring enrollment numbers is 7,418 students who are enrolled as academic-credit students, according to the press release. Institutions across the state of Arkansas has to submit reports of enrollment to the Department of Higher Education in February.

The historical enrollment headcount for NWACC was in 2011 with 8,528 students and the most recent large enrollment was in 2019 with 8,383.

According to the Arkansas Division of Higher Eduation Annual Enrollment Report of Fall 2021, NWACC has the highest number of enrollment whereas University of Arkansas Pulaski Technical is the second highest number of enrollment. NWACC’s fall enrollment of 2021 has 7,037 students and UAPTC has 4,408 students enrolled in the fall of 2021.

University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, the largest fall enrollment of public universities in Arkansas, has an increase of official enrollment count from 27,562 students from Fall 2022 to 29,068 students in Fall 2021. An increase of 262,506 students in total. Arkansas State University in Jonesboro is the second largest enrollment count of public universities in Arkansas with enrollment of 13,106 in Fall of 2022, however, it decreased by 243 students, making its enrollment of 2021 official count of 12,863 students.