University of Kentucky reports record enrollment, graduation and retention for fall 2024
The University of Kentucky is reporting record enrollment and graduation and retention rates for the fall 2024 semester, President Eli Capilouto said Friday.
Overall enrollment is over 36,000 for the first time at the university, up nearly 7% from last school year, according to preliminary data presented at Friday’s board of trustees meeting.
UK is the largest university in the commonwealth. Last year, there were 33,885 students enrolled. The University of Louisville, the second-largest university in Kentucky, had 23,225 students enrolled, according to data from the school.
First-year student enrollment at UK also has increased, with more than 6,500 first-year students enrolled. Additionally, UK is reporting graduation and retention rates at an all-time high for the university.
“We know that what our students do here — and how successful they are at UK — will determine, in large measure, whether we are successful in advancing Kentucky,” Capilouto said.
The graduation rate is more than 71%, which tracks the number of students who enroll at UK and graduate within six years. Nationally, the six-year graduation rate is 62.2%, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
Capilouto said that by achieving a graduation rate above 71%, UK’s ranks in the top 100 public universities.
Retention, which tracks the number of students who return to UK for their second year, is also at a record high of 87.3%.
“We have increased student success rates even as we have grown enrollment, even as we have maintained our commitment to opening doors of access to students from all walks of life — income, geography, race and other backgrounds,” Capilouto said. “That’s not the norm. But it’s who we are.”
Making significant gains in graduation and retention rates is not an easy task, and can take years to see notable changes at universities. Since 2016, UK has held a meeting each Friday to look at retention data on campus.
Todd Brann, executive director of institutional research, analytics and decision support, said those meetings are one thing that have contributed to record retention and give the university tangible ways to address retention and focus on the success of students.
For example, the UK LEADS program — which uses a data model to match students with scholarships and reduce the cost of attending — was created out of these meetings, Brann said.
“When we first started meeting in 2016, we had about a dozen people in it,” Brann said. “Today, there will be 60 to 80 people attending from all across campus. I think that’s one way that we’ve been trying to work collaboratively and in a data-informed way, always with a specific student success goal in mind.”
UK also looked at enrollment of first-year students from Appalachia, as defined by the Appalachian Regional Commission. That number increased from last fall, with 560 students from Appalachia enrolled this year.
Data presented on Friday is considered preliminary, with enrollment numbers finalized on Oct. 15.
Other data points presented on Friday include:
- Overall enrollment is expected to be 36,161, and first-year enrollment is 6,571.
- The largest number of transfer students — 1,162 — have enrolled at UK in more than a decade. That number is a 16% increase from last year.
- A record number of first-year students enrolled come from underrepresented backgrounds, and more than 26% of UK’s first-year students are first-generation students.
- The number of first-year students who are Black has declined by about 60 students. However, the overall number of Black, Hispanic and students who identify as two or more races has increased.
- UK awarded 9,545 degrees and certificates last school year, another record for the university.