Enrollment reaches record high at UTEP

The University of Texas at El Paso saw a record number of students enrolled this fall. The university’s freshman class grew by nearly 6 percent and the number of doctoral students increased by 24 percent.

We’ve seen new doctoral programs pretty consistently here at UTEP and we’re actually expecting another to be approved this year, we’re hopeful,” Vice President for Student Affairs Gary Edens said. “I think when we saw UTEP designated as an R1 institution, the word really got out there about the academic quality of UTEP and more and more graduate students are coming here both at the masters level and doctoral level.”

UTEP’s retention rates also continued to climb this year. In fall 2019, the undergraduate retention rate hit 77 percent, while last fall it was 69%.

“A big part of the enrollment picture is the students coming in, the new students,” Edens said. “But also are you keeping the students that are already at UTEP? So we focused a lot with our advising and faculty to make sure our students feel connected to the university, that they’re progressing in a timely manner.”

The university handed out a record number of degrees in the 2018-19 academic year, surpassing 5,000.