NWMSU Announces Highest Spring Enrollment In History

Northwest Missouri State University announced the results of their early February census. The numbers show the University has its highest spring enrollment in its history.

The University reports overall enrollment this spring increased 11 percent from a year ago to a headcount of 8,817. For the fourth consecutive spring, the institution set record graduate enrollment with 4,472 students, an increase of 31 percent from a year ago. Undergraduate enrollment decreased by 4 percent.

Student credit hours at Northwest are up 3 percent overall. Undergraduate student on-ground credit hours declined 7 percent while undergraduate credit hours for Northwest’s online programs increased 22 percent. In the graduate student sector, on-ground credit hours are up 44 percent, and credit hours for graduate online programs are up 9 percent.

Northwest reported a fall-to-spring retention rate of 89 percent.

The spring semester enrollment count follows a fall census that showed Northwest with a record headcount of 9,664. A subsequent headcount showed Northwest surpassing 10,000 students for the first time in its 118-year history.

Traditionally, spring enrollment totals are lower than those recorded during the fall semester, but the spring headcount ranks as Northwest’s second-highest census count in its history, just ahead of the University’s then-record headcount of 8,505 students in fall 2022.

The University’s in-state student population this spring is 5,824 students as Northwest’s domestic students hail from a total of 47 states, and the institution continues to draw well from Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas.

This spring, Northwest reports 937 students, or 11 percent of the student population, identify with underrepresented groups. The University’s enrollment of international students increased to 933 and also represent 11 percent of Northwest’s student body. They represent 38 countries with most of those students coming from India, Nigeria and South Africa.