Lipscomb University posts sixth consecutive year of record enrollment
Kim Chaudoin |
Fall enrollment takes university to 70 percent enrollment growth since 2005
With a sixth year of record enrollment this fall, Lipscomb University has hit a 70 percent enrollment growth since 2005.
With an offical enrollment of 4,278 university students, Lipscomb University has added more than 1,200 students in the last five years. The enrollment number will continue to increase in the next few weeks as cohorts in several graduate programs, including business and education, begin classes later in the semester.
With an enrollment of 1,302 at Lipscomb Academy, the total Lipscomb enrollment, including academy and university enrollments, is nearly 5,600.
“This is an exciting time for the Lipscomb community. This is a growing institution with a growing reputation,” said Lipscomb President L. Randolph Lowry. “We have had a period of tremendous growth in a time when the country has experienced one of the worst financial periods in its history. Lipscomb has responded quickly to workforce needs and connecting students to those emerging needs through new undergraduate and graduate programs.”
This year's graduate enrollment is 1,521, a 13 percent increase from last year.
Adding to the enrollment growth this semester are:
- Five new graduate programs including the Master of Education with Reading Specialty and Master of Science degrees in Information Technology Management, Engineering Management, Biomolecular Science and Marriage and Family Therapy;
- Two new cohorts in the two-year-old education doctorate program;
- The addition of SPARK, an innovative new learning and meeting site located in Franklin, Tenn., where a variety of academic programs are offered;
- 109 nursing students, the largest enrollment in Lipscomb’s history;
- 676 freshmen, up 7.5 percent from this time last year;
- 499 Master of Education students and 147 graduate psychology students;
- 388 new graduate students; and
- 170 veterans in the university’s “Yellow Ribbon” program, including one student from the nationwide “Sentinels of Freedom” program for severely wounded veterans.
In other growth this fall, more than 1,430 students — a university record — live in on-campus residence halls and 35 new faculty have been hired to serve the growing academic program offerings.
Lipscomb has begun its 122nd academic year. Last month, the university opened its new nursing and health sciences center, an $8.5 million facility that houses the school of nursing. The 24,800-square-foot building features a 16-bed simulation lab that is equipped with state-of-the-art mannequins that can be programmed to simulate a variety of illnesses and responses to the treatment the student nurses administer. The university recently made several additions and changes to the Bennett Campus Center, a retail, social and food hub for the campus that includes new food vendors and an expanded bookstore.
This fall, Lipscomb officials expect to break ground on a 15,300-square-foot health sciences research building that will provide state-of-the-art facilities for pharmacy and health science studies, including specialized labs, classrooms and other environments that support learning and research in the natural, applied and pharmaceutical sciences as well as facilitates collaboration with other academic institutions, clinical research organizations and biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in the Middle Tennessee area.
Last year, Lipscomb University was ranked as the 19th-best university in the South, by the U.S. News and World Report’s “2012 America’s Best Colleges” guidebook. The university has jumped 10 spots in the U.S. News’ rankings in the past five years.