A recent report from the University System of Georgia shows Middle Georgia State University having the second-highest enrollment increase in the state in 2018.
Vice President of Enrollment Management Jennifer Stenander says the university's increasing enrollment numbers aren't an accident. It was their major initiative over the last year.
“The major factors to increase the enrollment were just outreach to students, and then also our academic offerings and degree programs as well,” Stenander said.
This fall, 7,802 students enrolled at Middle Georgia State -- that’s over a 6 percent increase from last year.
"Enrollment had declined in Middle Georgia by 4.8 percent. We’ve all worked together to increase enrollment, and we saw a 7.4 percent increase in the summer, and then a 6.3 percent [increase] in the fall," Stenander said.
School of Information Technology Associate Dean Kevin Floyd says he’s seen a big jump in students in his program since he began working there six years ago.
“We started out early on as a program with about 50 students, and now we’ve over 900 students this fall,” Floyd said.
He says more students means they can add more programs.
"There will be opportunities for new programs at the undergraduate and graduate level, and we’re going to continue to attract more diverse students to our institution," Floyd said.
There’s a total of 26 institutions in the University System of Georgia.
12 of them saw an enrollment increase, and Middle Georgia had the second-highest last year behind Georgia Tech’s 11.4 percent.