Based on last year’s enrollment, University of Texas Permian Basin officials said Thursday they anticipate an even stronger showing for 2024.
President Sandra Woodley and Senior Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Becky Spurlock held a news conference in the Mesa Building Thursday to discuss the university’s forward momentum.
In 2023, UTPB served just under 7,500 students — a high mark for the university and up 7.5 percent over last year.
A news release said they were thrilled to share preliminary enrollment numbers for fall, which combined with the summer 2023 semester, signal the start of a new academic year. This semester, UTPB welcomes more than 1,100 students to campus.
The success remains consistent with last fall’s record-breaking new student enrollment. Fall ’23 enrollment continues on an upward trend, and although the final numbers will not be available for a few weeks, they expect an increase of about 1 percent, or around 5,775 students, the release said.
Spurlock said UTPB last year saw record-breaking growth for its new first-time in college freshmen last year and transfer students.
Enrollment is made up of undergraduate, graduate, dual credit and post-baccalaureate students who might be in certificate programs.
“We’re so happy to share that growth has been maintained and we’re continuing to edge forward in our growth. We really have incredible momentum happening at the university right now,” Spurlock said.
Woodley said part of what they attribute this success to is many years of growing the capacity in enrollment management and recruiting areas such as investing in advising, staff who process transcripts, people who recruit and investments in marketing and recruiting across all areas.
“We’ve made a lot of investments to make sure that we smooth the pathway for students. We’ve worked really closely with our wonderful partners at Odessa College and Midland College and that’s only getting better,” Woodley said.
The news release said 90 percent of students say UTPB is a top choice in their college selection process. Students receive a world-class University of Texas System education at an affordable price, it detailed.
“This is a destination of choice by more and more students. We see the interest from our 150-mile radius just continuing to expand. I’d add to what you said, Dr. Woodley, about our partnerships with MC and OC. ECISD and MISD are every day looking for new and creative partnerships with us, so consequently, the level of connection and interest is just so exciting,” Spurlock said.
Woodley said the investments that were made in UTPB’s new scholarship programs play a key factor as well.
“Shout out to the University of Texas System who provided the $1 million a year for Falcon Free. We served over 1,000 students on Falcon Free that qualified for that (who) are going to school here debt free. They don’t have to pay for tuition and required fees,” Woodley said.
Falcon Free covers tuition and mandatory fees for four years for families with an adjusted gross income of $100,000 or less a year. In all, the university distributed $18.8 million, including $11.7 million in grants and scholarships, the release said.
“But we also have scholarships from Scharbauer and PSP (Permian Strategic Partnership) and many of our other industry partners, community partners and foundation partners who have provided scholarships for specialty programs like pre-med and nursing and now behavioral health,” Woodley said. “… We have an opportunity to stretch that Falcon Free in a way that many, many more people who otherwise would not have been able to afford to go to college can now … (without) that financial barrier … We’re seeing that in our numbers,” she added.
Spurlock said they are not just seeing it the number of people that are coming to college, but in the number of credit hours they’re taking.
“We historically have had a population that has been very much a pay-as-you-go. Having access to more resources has meant they have more financial capability to take more hours, which means they get through college faster. They’re able to get out into the workforce sooner. We really saw that last year. We are seeing it this year. Now that we’re in our second year of Falcon Free, what we’re really seeing too is our level of retention of students looking incredibly strong, really telling the story that if students have the necessary resources and the opportunity, this is what they want to do and it is how they want to spend their time as long as they have the help necessary to do it,” Spurlock said.
Woodley noted that UTPB hasn’t had a tuition and fee increase and it won’t next year, which keeps its cost low.
“We’re extremely proud of how affordable we still are for a University of Texas education. And of course, if you look at net price, we’re off the charts. As we said before, with Falcon Free if you make $100,000 a year or less, you qualify not to have to pay tuition and fees. That’s a pretty good net price right there. That is where we’re seeing the strong growth,” Woodley said.
She added that she really believes their mission is to make sure that everybody in the Permian Basin has an opportunity to choose a college or university after they graduate from high school. Technical education is in the mix as well.
“All of our students, really as many as possible, need something after high school … so we are really proud to partner with the community colleges, the great technical education that they do and the associate degrees and then what we’re doing here at the university. It provides a very affordable opportunity for the community to choose to go to college. We’re seeing the realization of that through these great opportunities for scholarships,” Woodley said.
