By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville saw a record number of students in the spring semester once again.
For a third consecutive year, Northwest achieved a record enrollment in the spring, seeing an 11% increase from last spring.
Assistant Vice President for Admissions and Student Success at Northwest Allison Hoffmann says it's thrilling to see another year of growth
"I think it's something that we work really hard on, it's a total team effort of our campus community, our faculty, our staff, our students are a big part in recruitment as well," Hoffmann tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "And I think one of the things that we always talk about is this doesn't happen overnight; this is lots and lots of work for many years that kind of comes together and comes to fruition."
Hoffmann says the largest increase came in the number of online and graduate students
"So, if we think about students that are continuing their education after their first degree, they're often times an adult learner, they have a career, and so they're interested in continuing their education, but they want to do so in an online modality," Hoffmann explains.
"And so, we have seen a lot of growth, no surprise though in terms of that growth, that growth is really again from years and years of planning."
The campus saw a 31% increase from a year ago in graduate students this spring. While students on campus dropped 7%, online students grew 22%.
Hoffmann says while recruiting new students is important, what's just as important is ensuring already enrolled students are successful.
"When we think about those enrollment totals a lot of those enrollment totals are the students who we've previously recruited who are still at Northwest and working towards earning their degree," Hoffmann points out. "And so that continuing student count, whether it's on the undergraduate or graduate side, is very important to us in to hitting those goals too."
"It's not just about the new students that you bring in, it's about ensuring that the students that you have are successful."
The record spring enrollment was also the second highest ever at the University, trailing just the 2022 fall semester.
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