AMERICUS — Georgia Southwestern State University’s (GSW) Fall 2015 enrollment increased by 3.3 percent (89 students) from Fall 2014, as was reported by the University System of Georgia (USG) today. GSW’s total enrollment now stands at 2,755 students. This number includes both undergraduate and graduate students.
“Growing the enrollment at Georgia Southwestern is crucial to the success of every program on campus,” said GSW Interim President Charles Patterson, Ph.D. “I am pleased to report that we have done precisely that in Fall 2015. As an important economic driver for the region, Georgia Southwestern will continue efforts to grow moving forward.”
Eclipsing its goal of 3 percent enrollment growth, Georgia Southwestern was one of only four USG schools in south Georgia that experienced any sort of gain. All Georgia “state universities” grew at an average of 1.5 percent. Much of GSW’s success this fall can be attributed to re-instituting its education specialist program and the emphasis placed on dual enrollment programs with area school systems.
“We are pleased that we were able to add back these graduate education programs that are crucial to making our local school systems even better,” said Gaye Hayes, Ph.D., vice president for Enrollment Management.
The report released by Chancellor Hank Huckaby details enrollment at all 30 USG institutions by class standing (freshmen, sophomore, etc.), race/ethnicity and whether students are in-state or out-of-state. The USG grew by 1.7 percent (5,228 students) from fall 2014 to fall 2015, now totaling 318,164 students.
“We are encouraged by the year over year increase in our fall enrollment, but this is just the beginning and we still have work ahead of us to continually increase the number of Georgians with college degrees,” said Huckaby. “We are staying focused on our Complete College Georgia initiative, and will continue our efforts to recruit and retain students, and fully support them through their completion of college.”

The USG Fall 2015 Enrollment Report is available on the web at: http://www.usg.edu/research/documents/enrollment_reports/SER_Fall_2015.pdf