A recent study conducted by the Chronicle for Higher Education found that UW has one of the highest percentages of older (age 25 and up) undergraduate students in the nation.
The study, composed of data collected from 2015, ranks UW fifth in this category behind University of Alaska Fairbanks, Univeristy of Utah, University of New Mexico and University of Montana at Missoula. These five universities are the only flagship schools in the nation with older students contributing to a fifth or more of their undergraduate student base.
“Post secondary educational attainment is a driver for economic growth,” Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Professor Anne Alexander said. “Life gets complicated sometimes and it’s hard to complete [an education], sometime you have a family, sometimes other things get in the way.”
Since this 2015 survey, UW has seen nearly a ten percent student increase from 2,179 in 2015 (21.7 percent) to 3,705 in the Fall 2017 semester (29.9 percent), according to the UW Office of Institutional Analysis.
Much of this jump can likely be attributed to articulation agreements the university has made with area community colleges that allow students with associate’s degrees to further their education at UW. The university also offers a number of completion programs that are designed to accommodate students who may have had to take time off from their undergraduate work at UW or at another university. Programs like this are made possible by online classes. UW’s recent embracing of the Zoom web conferencing platform suggests that flexibility and student convenience will continue to be valued in the future.
“For the university to grow, we need to have more students of every kind,” Professor Alexander said.
Recruiting older undergraduate students helps to bolster UW’s overall enrollment. Over the last decade or so, the state of Wyoming has experienced little growth, and little decline in high school graduation rates. Bringing in an increasing number of nontraditional students helps to boost enrollment when in-state high school graduation rates have plateaued.
“We’re always excited when students choose the University of Wyoming,” UW Director of Admissions Shelley Dodd said. “There are so many great things that we offer students both academically and outside of the classroom and when you have students that are coming to us [UW] that are in this bracket, it just helps everyone in terms of where they might be going in a change in possible careers, or where they want to see themselves or be by getting their higher education degree.”
