University of Toledo student count drops less than 1%

Enrollment at the University of Toledo has continued to decrease since 2010, but in 2014, the decrease has been significantly less.

This fall semester, the student population dropped by less than 1 percent.

Cam Cruickshank, vice president of enrollment and distance learning, believes enrollment has dropped less this year compared to previous years, in part of the actions UT has taken to improve enrollment.

“We have ramped our marketing and recruitment efforts, we’ve been traveling to different countries, we’ve been experimenting with different marketing techniques and marketing partners,” Cruickshank said.

This fall, 70 percent of freshmen are full-time students, which is the highest percent UT has seen in a decade.

After continual decreasing of enrollment, UT has seen an increase in many aspects of enrollment this fall.

According to UT’s 15th day census, the direct-from-high-school students have grown from 3,137 to 3,184. The number of recipients of the Honors Award scholarship, which awards students who strove for academic excellence in high school, has gone up from 1,166 to 1,296.

The number of students participating in the Jesup Scott Honors College has grown immensely from 954 to 1,296.

The overall enrollment has dropped slightly from last year due in part of UT raising its academic standards. The total fall enrollment for this semester is 20,625 while the fall enrollment in 2013 was 20,728.

UT has raised their academic standards due to the fact that state funding of universities is now based on graduation numbers; the funding used to be based on overall enrollment, Cruickshank said.

“We knew when we raised standards we’d see a temporary dip in student enrollment.” Cruickshank said.

Despite the dip in enrollment as a whole, out-of-state enrollment has increased. More than 1,016 new students this fall are from out of state. This number also includes the 794 students from Michigan that are attending UT this fall.

According to a UT press release, a great amount of students have returned for their second year of schooling. Cruickshank hopes that UT can continue the increase in students in both sections of enrollment.

Tara Chlebowski contributed to this story.