Enrollment rises amid pandemic

Jacqueline Peraza | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Preliminary enrollment numbers show more than 32,000 students are attending UTRGV this semester, university officials say. 

As of last Thursday, the total number of students attending UTRGV is 32,681, not including those enrolled in the School of Medicine, said Magdalena “Maggie” Hinojosa, senior vice president for Strategic Enrollment and Student Affairs. 

Parwinder Grewal, dean of the Graduate College and executive vice president for Research, Graduate Studies & New Program Development, said the graduate enrollment for Fall 2020 was at 5,166 students as of last Thursday, a 38% increase from last fall.

He said there are 4,720 students pursuing their master’s and 381 pursuing a doctorate.

The rest of the students are in various certificate programs, Grewal said in an email last Wednesday.

As of last Thursday, the number of undergraduate students totaled 27,515, Hinojosa said. 

Official enrollment numbers will be available after Wednesday, which is Census Day.

The increase in enrollment in the Graduate College comes as a pleasant surprise, Grewal said. He said he believes there are many factors for the growth in graduate enrollment during the pandemic.

“One big reason is that a lot of people who were working do not have jobs right now,” Grewal said. “So, maybe that’s one reason they decided to go to graduate school instead.”

Other reasons he cited for the increase in graduate students include lack of job opportunities for recent graduates, waiving the GRE/GMAT requirement, UTRGV offering its Fall Relief Package and the development of new graduate programs.

These new graduate programs include applied statistics and data science, biochemistry and molecular biology, business analytics, and two new accelerated online courses in kinesiology and criminal justice.

“[Kinesiology and criminal justice] did exist before but now we have offered another option that students can take as fully online that is accelerated,” Grewal said.

UTRGV anticipates the addition of new programs for Spring 2020 and Fall 2021, pending approval from the UT System board of regents and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

The UTRGV Graduate College plans on adding a master’s in global commerce in the spring. For Fall 2021, the university hopes to offer a master’s in art education and UXUY design, as well as two new doctorates–human genetics and mathematics and statistics.

Grewal said the college is excited about the number of students choosing to study at UTRGV.

“We are committed to providing a very good experience to students as we have trained many of our faculty in online teaching,” he said. “So, our professors are far more prepared than many other universities.”