CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The number of students starting a four-year college has been going up in West Virginia, according to information reported during a state Higher Education Policy Commission meeting today.
The number of freshmen on West Virginia’s public four-year college campuses increased by 3.7 percent from last year.
“These increases are reflective of the strong emphasis the commission and its partners have placed on college access and success,” higher education Chancellor Paul Hill stated in a news release.
“West Virginia needs more college graduates to meet workforce demands and grow our economy. I am very proud of the work we are doing to address that need and to extend the life-changing opportunities a college education provides to more students across our great state.”
Meanwhile, overall enrollment rates at West Virginia’s colleges and universities remained relatively steady as compared to last year.
That leads higher education officials to conclude that enrollment is beginning to stabilize following a period of rapid enrollment increases and then declines as adults flocked to colleges and universities and then returned to the workforce as a result of the most recent recession.
This year’s college retention rate, or the number of students returning to college for their second year of enrollment, is at 70.7 percent — the highest it has been in the past five years.