Despite a drop in head count, the University of North Texas is planning to proceed forward with its budget as planned, but UNT officials say they will look this week at how the drop will impact student fees.
"We're looking at them [fees]," said Jean Bush, senior associate vice president for finance. "At this point overall, we're proceeding as planned."
Bush said the university is looking to see if the fees students pay need to be increased to compensate for the decline in enrollment.
The university normally anticipates 2 percent growth each year, said Troy Johnson, UNT's vice provost for enrollment.
Enrollment on the university's census day was recorded at 35,754, a decline of 364 students from the previous year. But the numbers won't be official until the Texas High Education Coordinating Board verifies them later this fall.
Johnson said one of the reasons for the decline could be attributed to financial aid cuts at the state and federal levels, which affected transfer-student enrollment.
Early transfer students - freshmen and sophomores - "are down for us, which is what we predicted because of the cuts in [financial] aid," Johnson said.
Students are waiting longer to transfer, he said.
University officials also attribute the enrollment decline to the large 2010-11 graduating class.
UNT graduated 639 more students than in the previous year, Johnson said.
He said with the graduation rate increasing, the university would have to add new students at a greater rate just to keep up.
But university officials say they aren't worried about a decline in headcount enrollment because the number of credit hours students are enrolled in increased from last year. The state looks credit hours at when awarding formula funding.
The university saw a 0.4 percent increase in credit-hour enrollment.
Provost Warren Burggren said the increase in credit-hour enrollment is good for the university, especially with the decline in headcount enrollment, because it means that students are taking heavier course loads and spending less time to get their degrees.
The university is continuing to push for higher quality instead of quantity.
"It's obviously better to have our students taking more credit hours," Burggren said.
He said UNT turned away two students for each one it admitted to the university this year.
"We want to grow, but not at all costs," he said.
Despite the university's tighter standards, freshman enrollment was up this year, an increase of more than 300 students over the previous year. UNT freshmen are taking an average of 14.5 credit hours.
The university looked for students with higher SAT scores and didn't base financial aid on a first-come, first-served basis, but on need and ability.
"It clearly paid dividends in the quality of the incoming class," Burggren said.
While the university rejected 35 percent of students who applied, Burggren said, it got more dedicated students, who are taking more credit hours and are on track to graduate on time.
RACHEL MEHLHAFF can be reached at 940-566-6889. Her e-mail address is rmehlhaff@dentonrc.com .
