OSU’s enrollment keeps going up. Why?

Nationwide, college enrollment is dropping, and more and more institutions have been closing each year.The COVID 19 pandemic, a reduction in the traditional-age student population and recent challenging international relations are all to blame. Meanwhile, at Oregon State University, enrollment is increasing and has increased every year since 1997. During that time frame, the university’s enrollment jumped nearly 150%, from slightly more than 14,000 students to more than 35,000 today, while U.S. college enrollment inched upward, barely achieving a 10% gain. What has made Oregon State immune to enrollment declines?

“It’s like a stock portfolio — you want a diversified mix of things,” said Jon Boeckenstedt, vice provost for enrollment management at Oregon State. “You need students from many groups — undergraduates, graduates, professional programs, international, online — and if numbers from one group decline, you need other programs to fill the gap.”

Recent years provide an example. The pandemic’s campus shutdowns and restricted travel, coupled with changing perceptions of the U.S. abroad, led to a more than 30% decrease in international students enrolling at the university. However, that loss was more than made up for by simultaneous gains in online students. Enrollment in Ecampus, Oregon State’s online education provider, increased more than 40%.

"It’s like a stock portfolio — you want a diversified mix of things"

The highly ranked Ecampus was well positioned when students around the world suddenly moved en masse to learning online, discovering what they liked — and didn’t like — about the experience.

“Today, it’s no longer enough to simply offer a certain program online,” said Lisa Templeton, vice provost for educational ventures. “Prospective students are looking for quality differentiators such as experiential learning opportunities, academic rigor, engagement with faculty and comprehensive support resources. These are hallmarks of Oregon State’s online programs.”

In addition to the flexibility so important to many nontraditional-age students, student parents and others, Ecampus provides first-of-their-kind programs and learning experiences, including the first fully online degrees in zoology and in fisheries and wildlife sciences, as well as in-house-developed virtual labs in biology and chemistry.

Oregon State’s significant brand recognition as a large public university with high profile athletics and research programs has also helped buffer it against enrollment drops and helped it grow, Boeckenstedt said. A bigger brand means a wider and more diverse pool of students. Institutions hardest hit by enrollment declines are typically small, regionally specific, single-gender, religiously affiliated or have a narrow curricular focus.

Boeckenstedt, a higher education data geek who publishes a detailed blog (highereddatastories.com) on higher education data trends, was drawn to OSU in 2019 because he saw an opportunity to build on the university’s success. During his time, enrollment at the Corvallis campus has remained the largest segment, with new growth coming from the continued expansion of OSU Cascades and from Ecampus. A quarter of the Class of 2023 were Ecampus students.

Even with that success, Boeckenstedt continues to think about what will drive the next large-scale shift in enrollment to make sure Oregon State is prepared.

“Right now, the big question is ‘What is the next Ecampus?’” he said. “What is going to make us stronger 15 to 30 years from now? If I knew the answer to that, I’d go out and sell it to others.”