How do we keep the door of education open for students whilst balancing our operational tipping points for housing, dining, parking services, classroom spaces, etc.?
As demonstrated by record applications for the fall semester, interest in Ohio University is at an all-time high, and enrollment of new and continuing students on the Athens campus has been especially strong in the past couple of years. New incoming students have enrolled in record numbers, and we are encouraged by strong rates for fall-to-spring return, first-year retention, and four- and six-year graduation. These measures are all signs of the University’s ability to attract outstanding students and support their success.
The Enrollment Management teams work closely with academic and administrative leadership throughout the enrollment cycle, beginning multiple years in advance and continuing well into the summer orientation season, to ensure that OHIO can accommodate the entering and returning classes well as they shape up. We have flexibility in our planning to accommodate a slightly smaller or larger class if there are changes in enrollment patterns. Public universities as advanced and sophisticated as OHIO can support a variety of enrollment scenarios, so for any given year we are constantly working to understand how the University can best deliver on its mission as a public university and support our students well, and we know that planful, stable enrollment levels help us provide the distinctive Ohio University experience.
Long-term, we will continue to align capacity analysis and planning with OHIO’s dynamic strategies, as well as with OHIO’s academic priorities across future enrollment cycles.