KEARNEY – Fall 2024 enrollment at the University of Nebraska at Kearney remained relatively stable at 5,881 students, with a 2.3 percent decrease in students enrolled compared to 6,017 in fall 2023. The number of credit hours students are enrolled in, however, decreased only 0.5%.
First-time freshmen numbered 875 – that’s 3.8% less than 2023, but more than in fall 2022. The number of continuing undergraduate students increased 0.4% to 4,267 – indicating strong student retention. Graduate students at UNK decreased 7% to 1,668, but the graduate students are producing only 4.1% fewer credit hours.
Students are coming to UNK from 47 states, 92 Nebraska counties and 58 countries. The states with the largest representation are California (56), Colorado (125), Iowa (54), Kansas (118), South Dakota (29) and Texas (37). Iowa, Kansas and South Dakota recorded the largest increases. Among UNK’s first-time freshmen, 13.3% are not Nebraska residents.
UNK recorded its largest number of students classified as nonresident aliens – 290 – since 2019. The countries with the largest representation of students from countries other than the U.S. are Japan (108), Mexico (45), South Korea (41), China (27) and Nepal (24). Students from both South Korea and China increased dramatically over last year.
The number of students transferring to UNK from other colleges decreased 9% to 296.
The College of Business and Technology saw an increase in student numbers to 1,071, with the largest increases in Industrial Technology and Management. Majors recording the largest increases, and their highest numbers in the last 10 years, were political science, physics and psychology. Management, health science and early childhood/elementary education remain the most popular majors.
Graduate program numbers at UNK increased in communication disorders, art/art history, English and health science.
Enrollment at the University of Nebraska reached its highest level since 2021, with a total of 49,749 students enrolled across the system this fall, President Jeffrey P. Gold announced today.
Enrollment of undergraduate students and resident students grew system-wide, both key demographics as the university seeks to grow educational attainment in the state and deliver a highly skilled workforce for Nebraska.
Dr. Gold credited a re-energized focus on student recruitment and engagement for putting the University of Nebraska on an upward trajectory in spite of challenges facing all of higher education.
Those include changing demographics as well as last year’s botched rollout of a redesigned Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FASFA) produced by the U.S. Department of Education, which has created significant uncertainty for students as they weigh their college decisions. FAFSA completions by Nebraska students are down 11 percent compared to this time last year, according to a national FAFSA tracker.
