As students’ options for classes transition to more online formats, do the enrollment numbers change? For Lipscomb, the answer is no.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States last March, the nation’s education system was forced to scramble to figure out how it was going to keep educating its students. The solution was found in Zoom meetings and asynchronous classes where students can keep learning without sharing the air with their classmates.
Lipscomb has joined other schools in this new emphasis on virtual learning and even adopted its own specific program, Lipscomb Flex, but how has this changed registration numbers?
Byron Lewis is the Vice President for Enrollment Management at Lipscomb and is familiar with the retention numbers for the student population.
Lewis noted that he sees the Lipscomb Flex model as a success since the number of students at Lipscomb has remained consistent with past years.
“We had really strong spring enrollments for both the graduate and undergraduate areas,” said Lewis. “I’d say probably eight to 12 new freshman students that start in the spring… [and] we usually have between 40 and 60 new transfer students.”
Not only were the incoming second-semester numbers consistent with previous spring semesters, but the retention rates between semesters also proved to be steady.
“We had really strong retention numbers from fall to spring,” said Lewis. “94.8% of the students that came and started in the fall that returned. He added, “That’s about a percentage point shy of the record, which was set last year.”
Lewis commented that the only numbers that had slightly dropped were the number of transfer students that joined the Lipscomb community the previous fall. “They were about 87% and last year they were 91%,” said Lewis.
The largest change for the enrollment office has been with the operations of the undergraduate recruitment team. Lewis recalled that they are usually visiting schools and hosting meetings in person, all things that are not currently plausible.
Lewis said, “All of that just sort of evaporated into a litany of zoom meetings and calls.”
Even though recruitment is looking very different this year, Lewis is still hopeful for admissions at Lipscomb.
“[The fall of 2020] was our largest entering freshman class in Lipscomb’s history,” said Lewis, proving that recruitment was still a success despite all the changes.
Lewis looks toward the future: “We have a really strong applicant pool, our applications are up for the fall, we’re optimistic about that.”