Numbers are up across the board in South Dakota’s university system.
The state tallied a five percent increase in headcount totaling more than 36,000 students.
Students in South Dakota are taking 377,000 credit hours at state schools this fall, and that total is generally in line with the increase in overall student headcount.
Part of that growth, according to University of South Dakota president Shelia Gestring, can be attributed to an institutional commitment to cost savings.
“Our board of regents, the Legislature, the governor, all of our foundations, and our own operations, we’ve all be committed to access to high quality education at a manageable cost – and we’ve done that for five years," Gestring said. "There are students graduating last spring and this spring that have never seen a tuition increase.”
Gestring, and her counterpart at South Dakota State University Barry Dunn, spoke with SDPB’s Lori Walsh on In the Moment as enrollment numbers were released.
Dunn said you can see the difference in Brookings.
“Our dorms are full, which is a great sign," Dunn said.
"Our freshman class we know is large. We know we have more international students than we had a year ago. All the signs say the retention from freshman to sophomore is very high.”
That first-year retention, Dunn said, is crucial. Especially for students on campus.
“The success rate, graduation rate, of students who spend their first two years on campus is proven by studies for many many years that the success rate is much higher than students that don’t live on campus,” Dunn said.
Only one school, Black Hills State University, reported a dip in overall headcount according to the board of regents. Despite the net loss, the school itself reports a larger first-year student cohort than the previous year.