Reasons given for decline include falling birth rate, international student enrollment decline, drop of about 100 students in the university’s hotel and restaurant management program, 100 fewer students attending the community campuses
In an article by Rachel Leingang, Arizona Republic, October 11, 2019 it was reported that enrollment had dropped at Northern Arizona University this fall for the first time in 14 years. According to the article, “the drop fits into a larger trend of college enrollment falling nationwide as the birth rate has gone down.”
University President Dr. Rita Cheng gave three reasons for the enrollment drop. She said that NAU’s international student enrollment declined by more than 100 students. Kuwait, which was described as a major source of international students for NAU, sent significantly fewer this year. NAU officials told Ms. Leingang for the article that this “was because the Kuwaiti government believes the school has too high a number of their students already.”
Dr. Cheng also said that there was a drop of about 100 students in the university’s hotel and restaurant management program. According to Dr. Cheng, when the university reached out to students who stopped taking classes, they said they had found good jobs and wanted to keep working.
A third reason that might explain the drop was that about 100 fewer students are attending the community campuses operated by NAU.
This fall, the number of undergraduates across NAU’s campuses decreased from 27,078 to 26,513.
The only increase was with graduate students. Enrollment for graduate students at NAU increased this fall by nearly 6%.