2025 Enrollment Plan and Targets • Institutional Strategy and Analysis

2025 Enrollment Plan

NC State’s Enrollment Strategy

This enrollment plan outlines primary strategies for fulfilling NC State’s mission to serve the people of North Carolina and its special role within the UNC system as a research-extensive university. Our strategic initiatives include growing our tenured and tenure track faculty numbers while expanding our research and thus enhancing our economic impact in the state, region and world. Our intent is not to predict future enrollment passively by applying historical trends to demographic trends. Rather, this enrollment plan suggests strategies for actively managing the University’s enrollment to achieve the following aims:

Improve the quality and standing of NC State’s academic programs;
Enhance the success of our students;
Enhance diversity to encourage interactions among students from different racial and ethnic, social and economic, geographic, and religious backgrounds;
Develop new academic programs with an emphasis on interdisciplinary fields of study;
Improving the planning process to reduced “volatility” in enrollment growth thus establishing a manageable growth pattern;
Ensure sufficient access for North Carolinians to programs that are relatively unique in the UNC system, while emphasizing competitive excellence in programs offered by other campuses; and
Increasing globalization engagement.

Consistent with NC State’s strategic plan, this long-range enrollment plan calls for changes in the composition of the student body, notably expanding the proportion of graduate students particularly at the doctoral level in the STEM areas and in professional master’s degrees in high-impact areas needed for the workforce of tomorrow. Among undergraduates, while continuing to provide access to NC State programs that are unique in the UNC system, we will encourage the enrollment of well-qualified external undergraduate transfers. To broaden our students’ perspectives, we will increase non-NC resident undergraduate enrollment within the limits set by the UNC Board of Governors. For all undergraduates we will strive to facilitate their internal transfer among colleges. Growth will be managed in a way that maintains the University’s strength in science and technology while honoring its commitment to excellence in a comprehensive range of disciplines, particularly those that enrich our responses to the grand challenges facing society. Growth will also be managed in a way that enhances student diversity and improves the quality of our academic programs and student population. In order to insure continued alignment of this enrollment plan with the University Strategic Plan and in response to the changing nature of the economy and its impact on the University Budget, this plan be reviewed (and updated if necessary) on a regular basis during the biennial planning process.

Total Size

Continued growth is an enrollment option that would accommodate the expanding North Carolina population and potentially provide new faculty positions and other resources to expand and enhance programs and services. However, to protect the quality of the educational programs at NC State, we must manage enrollment growth to fit available resources, invest in strategies to increase non-state funding, and better align enrollment with resources. To this end, this enrollment plan is based on the following strategies:

Manage growth in undergraduate programs, where state appropriations and tuition are the only sources of support. Instead, emphasize growth in graduate programs whose funding are enhanced by federally and privately funded research initiatives or that are supported with premium tuition, or where students are self-supporting;
Alleviate pressure on colleges with high service teaching responsibilities and on student support services by limiting lower division enrollment growth and targeting transfer students;
Grow programs that are unique to NC State University and are in high demand relative to employment opportunities while focusing on improving the quality of all programs; and
Grow programs that have a demonstrated commitment to student success.

Baseline Assumptions

This 10 year Enrollment Plan is based on the following assumptions: (1) the UNC System enrollment change funding formula will remain in effect and be fully funded; (2) the Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Programs will continue to result in hiring outstanding interdisciplinary tenured faculty who teach or assist with graduate and upper division undergraduate instruction; (3) the university is not short of general classroom space but renovation of instructional laboratory space may be required, and (4) no net additional classroom space is currently under construction. But, approval of the 2016 Bond means that two new construction requests – Engineering Oval and Plant Sciences will be completed by 2020. A third priority, the Science Commons, is not likely to provide new classroom space until very late in this planning cycle.

Graduate Education

Because NC State is one of only two research-extensive universities in the UNC system, the expansion of graduate education – particularly doctoral education – is our highest priority for enrollment growth. Our goal is to increase graduate enrollment as long as there is sufficient demand that we can meet with resources adequate to sustain the quality of education. In particular, this plan calls for these strategies:

Create ambitious doctoral enrollment targets, especially those related to strategic research initiatives and those that strengthen interdisciplinary initiatives;
Build professional master’s programs that provide career development opportunities for working adults and that address unmet economic development needs;
Leverage degree-granting authority and faculty expertise through partnerships with other universities; and
Provide sufficient resources needed to support graduate enrollment projections, including GSSP and stipends, as well as tenure-track faculty and research space.

Many of NC State’s doctoral graduates join the faculties of universities across the nation and world. We share with other doctoral institutions a responsibility for building a faculty diverse in background and perspective, ready to teach and mentor new generations of students, which will be increasingly diverse themselves. To that end, NC State will recruit and mentor graduate students representing a variety of academic perspectives and racial, ethnic, gender, and geographic backgrounds.

Undergraduate Education

At the undergraduate level, NC State’s focus will continue to be on improving student success and the quality of the undergraduate experience. The greatest threat to student success and program quality is continuing erosion of the resources necessary to provide adequate faculty, academic support services, and equipped classrooms. Undergraduate education depends on state appropriations, tuition, and private support, all of which will likely see limited increases in the foreseeable future. Accordingly, NC State will manage enrollment growth in undergraduate programs in the following ways:

Limit new freshmen enrollment to improve selectivity and student success;
Expand co-curricular programs and student support services, such as advising, counseling, and career services;
Sharpen our competitive edge for the most highly qualified students by providing sufficient merit aid needed to recruit more highly qualified freshmen; and
Provide sufficient capacity to meet demand for unique programs, while emphasizing quality in all academic programs.

Nonetheless, NC State is committed to providing access for North Carolinians to NC State’s undergraduate programs as much as possible through improved student retention and graduation rates, and through increased transfer enrollment. First, by reducing time to degree, we will free up capacity to serve more students, and, over time, award as many undergraduate degrees as we do now. We will be able to manage course offerings more effectively and provide financial aid to a larger number of students. While we redouble our efforts to support students’ success in their original college of choice, we will also facilitate and plan capacity for the nearly 20% of students who change colleges during their undergraduate career. Second, by holding relatively flat freshmen and increasing transfers, we can provide degree opportunities for the same number of students while relieving pressure on service departments and academic support services. The following steps would support these strategies:

Develop institution- and program-specific articulation agreements to facilitate the transfer of students prepared to be successful at NC State;
Develop recruiting, orientation, and student support programs designed especially for transfer students;
Provide sufficient financial resources to provide access to all qualified North Carolinians including transfers;
Take deliberate steps to improve graduation rates; and
Reduce barriers faced by undergraduates wishing to change majors (intra campus transfers).

A diverse student body strengthens the educational experience by encouraging interactions among students from different racial and ethnic, social and economic, geographic, and religious backgrounds. In and outside of the classroom, diversity enhances the commerce of ideas, values, and perspectives. At the undergraduate level, NC State will expand diversity by encouraging transfers from community colleges and by increasing the proportion of non-resident freshmen. The following strategies would support these purposes:

Develop transfer programs with feeder institutions best positioned to contribute to the diversity of NC State’s student body;
Increase out-of-state recruiting and enrollment; and
Increase resources available for scholarships and need-based financial aid.

Teaching and Learning with Technology

Instructional technology can contribute substantially to the quality of teaching and learning. Technology can stimulate innovative teaching, enrich learning resources for students, facilitate interactions among students and faculty, and help us leverage our resources to give access to more students. Achieving the appropriate combination of distance education, blended courses and programs, and high-impact educational content will raise program quality, student engagement, student success and efficiency of course offerings.

The following steps will be taken to enhance success of on-campus students:

Provide high quality on-line course offerings to address the growing demand and need for scheduling flexibility, particularly during summer;
Work towards achieving and appropriate balance of face-to-face and online offerings;
Leverage technology-enabled pedagogies (e.g. flipped courses) that improve student learning outcomes;
Develop a strategy to improve efficient use of classrooms for increasing numbers of blended learning courses and programs; and
Leverage learning analytics to provide early warning indicators.

The following steps will be taken to grow and support world-class online programs, especially at the graduate level:

Develop distance education programs in high-demand disciplines where NC State has strength;
Enhance national reputation and thus bring attention to our best graduate programs;
Leverage distance education as a recruiting tool; and

Take advantage of the trend of shifting demand from for-profit online providers to online offerings from traditional public and private institutions, and position our best programs to capture market share.

2025 Enrollment Targets

This plan calls for enrollment growth to 38,700 by 2025 (13.8% growth), including both on-campus and distance education students. This increase compares to a similar 13% growth between 2005 and 2015. Consistent with the goals described previously, graduate enrollment as a percent of the total student population will continue to grow, from roughly 28% to31%, with the fastest growth occurring at the doctoral level.

2025 Enrollment Plan (Fall Headcount)

	2015 Actuals	2025 Targets	Change to 2025
New Freshmen	4,212	4,550	+8.0%
New Ag Institute	152	145	-4.6%
New Transfers	1,108	1,680	+51.6%
New Master’s	2,257	2,930	+29.8%
New Doctoral	544	826	+51.8%
New DVM	100	100	+0%
Total Undergraduate (Bachelors)	22,131	24,720	+11.7%
Total Ag Institute	330	355	+7.6%
Total Master’s	5,316	6,695	+25.9%
Total Doctoral	3,361	4,230	+25.9%
Total DVM	396	400	+1.0%
Total Degree Seeking	31,534	36,400	+15.4%
Certificates in Colleges	282	625	+121.6%
Total Non-degree Seeking	2,199	1,675	-23.8%
GRAND TOTAL	34,015	38,700	+13.8%

To establish targets for each college within the overall 38,700 enrollment goal for the entire university, the Enrollment Planning Committee solicited proposed targets from each college. Those proposals were reviewed in light of the University’s strategic plan and information related to the broad strategies outlined above, including the following:

Demand as expressed through applications;
Student qualifications and admissions selectivity;
Potential for improving diversity;
Throughput: retention and graduation rates, and time to degree;
Potential for and interest in shifting undergraduate admissions from freshmen to external transfers; and
Capacity for growth: teaching workloads, revenues vs. expenditures, cost per section, availability of space, and graduate student support.

Particular care was taken to assess each college’s capacity and funding potential for graduate education. The Committee reviewed information about the cost per student (including the cost of an average student support package for resident, domestic non-residents, and international students) and revenues associated with enrollment (including the funding formula and tuition premiums). The 2025 enrollment projections show more growth in colleges whose sponsored program income is sufficient to fund research assistantships, and to programs whose students are generally self-supporting. College targets are included in Appendix A.

Implementation Strategies

The enrollment strategies described above – expanding graduate programs, strengthening undergraduate programs – require that NC State build a research (tenured and tenure-track) faculty large enough to expand sponsored research and to provide a high quality educational experience for our students. We will need to reverse the trends of the last decade, when headcount enrollment increased by 13%, non-tenure track faculty grew by 21%, and tenure-track faculty increased by only 1%. To support graduate programs and overall program excellence, NC State must adopt the following strategy:

Increase the number of tenured and tenure-track faculty, particularly in areas of growth; and
To the extent feasible, fill instructional positions funded through enrollment growth with permanent faculty, rather than holding them vacant for budget reductions or teaching overloads.

Like all institutions of higher education, NC State must also improve the efficiency of all its activities, including instruction. Like all public institutions, we will try to depend less on state support without shifting too much of the costs to students and their families. This calls for careful enrollment planning in all units, ensuring course availability, and improved efficiency through multiple strategies:

Improve alignment between resources and enrollment in each college;
Balance enrollment growth across programs in a fiscally sound manner that considers both costs and funding;
Improve retention rates and time to degree at all degree levels, in part by facilitating intra-campus transfers;
Increase enrollment capacity in colleges that attract large numbers of intra-campus transfers;
Reduce the cost of instruction and improve classroom utilization through creative use of learning technologies and partnerships;
Re-evaluate the master plan, capital improvements plan, and space utilization strategies as needed to provide capacity in growth areas; and
Implement research initiatives necessary to attract the resources necessary to support graduate enrollment.

With the current funding formulae (including the CVM formula) and instructional salary levels, an increase in total headcount enrollment to 38,700 and the college distribution described in Appendix A would yield approximately $9.5 million new funding each year. The additional costs of graduate programs may be supported in part through premium tuition (largely master’s) and sponsored programs (doctoral).

Assumptions to build 2025 targets on:

The 2025 targets are intended to be ambitious but realistic targets;
New freshman growth is relatively modest and the focus is in the STEM areas;
New transfers are going to increase;
Grow the percent graduate from ~27% to >30% (this will be aggressive);
Grow both “professional” masters and doctoral; and
We must anticipate new programs in development and planned changes.

Appendix A: 2015 Actuals and 2025 Enrollment Targets by College/Unit (Fall Headcount)

College/Unit	Year	New Freshman	New External Transfers	Total Undergraduate (Bachelors)	New Master’s	Total Master’s	New Doctoral /DVM	Total Doctoral /DVM	Grand Total
Analytics	2015				112	115			115
Analytics	2025				150	150			150
CALS	2015	523	157	2,779	215	615	33	382	3,776
CALS	2025	465	245	3,020	310	790	85	465	4,275
COD	2015	97	33	554	64	196	7	35	785
COD	2025	100	50	615	75	215	10	40	870
CED	2015	105	24	538	240	576	48	422	1,536
CED	2025	100	30	600	325	755	80	495	1,850
COE	2015	1,331	223	6,230	835	2,071	201	1,184	9,485
COE	2025	1,650	475	7,530	1,130	2,640	345	1,625	11,795
CNR	2015	119	89	1,275	73	265	8	96	1,636
CNR	2025	170	160	1,600	130	380	25	140	2,120
CHASS	2015	387	295	3,315	233	504	57	291	4,110
CHASS	2025	455	275	3,580	255	570	55	340	4,490
COS	2015	562	101	2,708	101	178	148	720	3,606
COS	2025	675	160	3,200	75	195	175	850	4,245
COT	2015	140	21	993	31	96	18	116	1,205
COT	2025	170	50	1,030	40	115	20	130	1,275
CVM	2015				4	14	109	448	462
CVM	2025				5	15	116	470	485
PCOM	2015	377	146	2,603	349	686	15	63	3,352
PCOM	2025	430	225	2,900	435	870	15	75	3,845
DASA	2015	723	19	1,466					1,466
DASA	2025	480	10	1,000					1,000
Non-Degree	2015								2,199
Non-Degree	2025								1,675
Certificates	2015								282
Certificates	2025								625
Total	2015	4,364	1,108	22,461	2,257	5,316	644	3,757	34,015
Total	2025	4,695	1,680	25,075	2,930	6,695	926	4,630	38,700