UGA has largest student body in history with fall enrollment of 34,180
Writer: Larry B. Dendy, 706/542-8078, ldendy@uga.edu
Contact: Rebecca Macon, 706/542-6020, rmacon@uga.edu
Oct 15, 2008, 16:14

Athens, Ga. – Spurred by growth at two of its extended campuses, the University of Georgia has its largest student body in history this fall with an enrollment of 34,180—the first time ever that enrollment has topped 34,000.

The fall semester enrollment is 349 students (one percent) above last fall and 221 more than the previous record of 33,959 set in 2006.

The total includes 33,078 students on UGA’s main campus in Athens, up one percent from last year, and 938 students at the university’s extended campuses in Gwinnett County, Tifton, Griffin and Buckhead in Atlanta—a 6.2 percent increase from last fall. An additional 164 students are enrolled in independent study.

On the main campus in Athens, undergraduate enrollment totals 25,201, up by 207 over last year, and graduate enrollment increased by 110 students to a total of 6,324. Enrollment in the professional schools of law, pharmacy and veterinary medicine increased by four students to a total of 1,553.

The biggest increases at the extended campuses are at Buckhead, where 271 students are enrolled, and Griffin, where 106 students are enrolled. The Buckhead campus is mainly for working professionals and enrolls only students studying for master’s degrees in business administration. This is the first enrollment report in which Buckhead students are counted separately; in previous reports, they were counted as enrolled either in Athens or at the Gwinnett campus.

The Griffin campus has 60 undergraduates, compared to 40 last year, and 46 graduate students compared to 17 last year. The Tifton campus has a total of 48 undergraduate and graduate students, exactly the same as last year.

The Gwinnett campus has 513 students of whom 510 are enrolled in graduate courses. UGA offers only graduate courses at Gwinnett after phasing out undergraduate courses when Georgia Gwinnett College opened. Eliminating undergraduate programs was the primary factor in a 34 percent drop in total enrollment at the campus. Three undergraduates still are coded for enrollment purposes as enrolled at Gwinnett but are attending classes in Athens.

Robert Boehmer, associate provost for institutional effectiveness, said the extended campuses are a crucial factor in UGA’s efforts to promote economic growth in Georgia.

“In response to the state’s growing needs for workforce development and access to higher education, UGA has dramatically expanded its degree programs in Buckhead, Griffin, Gwinnett and Tifton,” Boehmer said.

“This effort will continue as UGA seeks to identify and implement additional degree programs uniquely suited to the needs of these key locations. UGA’s strong commitment to serving the needs of the entire state is well demonstrated by these efforts.”

Of the total 34,180 enrollment, 7,928 students had never attended UGA before including 4,376 first-time freshmen who enrolled this fall. Combined with 377 first-time freshmen who enrolled this summer, the total count of first-time freshmen for summer and fall is 4,753, an increase of 149 from last year.

Of the first-time freshmen who enrolled this fall, 295 had earned enough academic credit through joint-enrollment or advanced placement programs to be classified as sophomores, and 16 had enough credit to be classified as juniors.

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