Enrollment milestones continue to be established and records continue to fall at Arkansas Tech University. Arkansas Tech has 9,801 students on its campuses in Russellville and Ozark this fall. That is an 11.2 percent increase over fall 2009, and it marks the 12th consecutive year in which Arkansas Tech has set a new school record for enrollment.
Enrollment figures were reported after Thursday, which was the 11th class day of the 2010-11 academic year. “Arkansas Tech University has continued to grow because we are sound academically, we are a great value among the top five four-year institutions in our state and we create an environment where people of all backgrounds are comfortable,” said Dr. Robert C. Brown, Arkansas Tech president. “Our unprecedented streak of 12 consecutive record enrollments is a testament to the quality of our faculty, the quality of our programs and our commitment to provide a well-rounded and meaningful experience for our students.” This year marks the first time that enrollment has ever topped 9,000 students at Arkansas Tech. It was just a decade ago that Arkansas Tech was celebrating its first 5,000-student enrollment. Now the university is on the doorstep of 10,000 students. Enrollment at Arkansas Tech has increased 131 percent since 1997, but the story of that growth extends beyond enrollment figures to something more important — graduation figures. Arkansas Tech has awarded more than 17,000 degrees since Brown became president in 1993. That represents more than 50 percent of the degrees that have been earned at Arkansas Tech during its 100-year history.
“The state of Arkansas continues to rank 49th among the 50 states in the percentage of adults that have attained a baccalaureate degree,” said Brown. “At Arkansas Tech University, we consider it a moral obligation to provide our students with every opportunity to earn a degree. We are proud of our increases in enrollment, but the quality of student that Arkansas Tech attracts is equally meaningful and equally impressive. Quality students become college graduates, and producing more college graduates is critical to economic development in our state.” The 1,482 incoming freshmen at Arkansas Tech achieved a cumulative high school grade point average of 3.21.
The average ACT score among the Tech Class of 2014 — 22.4 — is two points above the state average and more than a point higher than the national average. This marks the 16th consecutive year in which the Arkansas Tech freshman class has beaten the national average on the ACT exam.
Popular majors for Arkansas Tech freshmen this year include nursing, mechanical engineering, early childhood education, biology and management and marketing.
Among the freshmen admitted to Arkansas Tech this fall, 16.2 percent are from minority groups. That represents a 4.5 increase from fall 2009. For the first time ever, more than 10,000 first-time college students made application to Arkansas Tech. The 10,061 undergraduate applications for fall 2010 represent a 17 percent increase from fall 2009. A total of 2,461 Arkansas Tech students received the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship for fall 2010. This year marked the first time that the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship received funding from the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery. There are 325 international students representing more than 30 countries enrolled at Arkansas Tech for fall 2010.
Another area of growth is in the Arkansas Tech Graduate College, which saw enrollment jump by 6.5 percent this fall.
“We seek to create a diverse community of learners,” said Brown. “As part of that, we have established a goal of enrolling 800 international students and 1,000 graduate students by fall 2015. We believe those are two areas of great potential for our university.”
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