Dear Colleagues,
We write to share our semester report on census outcomes with the campus community. The following are highlights of the spring 2023 census:
- Total enrollment: Total student enrollment fell 1.25 percent from 9,303 (spring 2022) to 9,188 (spring 2023). Of 9,188 total students, 5,657 (61.57 percent) are undergraduate students, 3,450 (37.55 percent) are graduate students, and 81 (0.88 percent) are visiting students. This small decline is similar to last spring, when we experienced a decline of 1.34 percent. Total enrollment is 97.6 percent of the budgeted target of 9,415 students, with undergraduate enrollments at 100.2 percent of budgeted targets and graduate enrollments at 93.1 percent of targets.
- Undergraduate student spring enrollment: The size of the matriculating spring class of students (domestic first-years, domestic transfers, international transfers, and international first-years) has decreased from 286 to 262 but is nevertheless 112.4 percent of the budgeted target. Domestic first-time, first-year, and transfer student spring numbers both exceeded spring targets, with first-time, first-year students more than doubling the target. International first-time, first-year enrollments were on target while international transfer student numbers fell short of target.
- Graduate student spring enrollment: As of the spring 2023 census, the university has enrolled 3,450 graduate students on a target of 3,707 students, with lower than anticipated enrollment for the year in all schools except the School of Law. There were some successes as the graduate programs continue to face strong headwinds. The School of Law continued to surpass its yearly budgeted enrollment target by 5.8 percent. The percentage of international graduate students increased by 2.5 percent. The College of Arts and Sciences, School of Law, and School of Nursing and Health Professions met their spring targets for new graduate students.
- First-year retention: The first-time, first-year fall-to-spring return rate decreased from 92.3 percent (fall 2021 entering cohort) to 91.3 percent (fall 2022 entering cohort), which is lower than our target of 94 percent. The fall-to-spring return rate of new (Hilltop) transfer students decreased from 88.4 percent (fall 2021 entering cohort) to 86.8 percent (fall 2022 entering cohort).
- Diversity: USF continues to attract a diverse student body. According to our data for the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), 7.1 percent of our students self-identify as African American, 22.4 percent as Asian, 21.6 percent as Latinx, 13.4 percent as international, 0.2 percent as Native American, 0.3 percent as Pacific Islander, 26.0 percent as white, and 8.2 percent self-reporting as more than one ethnicity. These data are almost identical to the data reported in the fall 2022 census. As we discussed in the fall report, it is important to note that ethnicity for IPEDS reporting is defined narrowly in some instances and broadly in others. For example, 13.3 percent of USF undergraduate students identified as Black, which differs from the IPEDS definition. In addition, the IPEDs category for students who identify as Asian also includes students who identify as Asian American. Our offices continue to work on ways to report about our diversity that is consistent with our strategic goal of inclusive excellence.
- Discount rate: The overall institutional discount rate increased from 31.8 percent (spring 2022) to 33.1 percent (spring 2023). The discount rate for undergraduates increased slightly from 37.8 percent (spring 2022) to 38.5 percent (spring 2023). Excluding athletes, the first-time, first-year discount rate saw an increase from 34.8 percent (spring 2022) to 40.2 percent (spring 2023) while the transfer discount rate increased from 33.7 percent (spring 2022) to 36.8 percent (spring 2023).
- Budget impact: The current third-quarter forecast of the university's net tuition revenue for FY 2023 is approximately $5.9 million less than budgeted. The forecast accounts for actual tuition paid in summer and fall of 2022 as well as spring 2023. When finalized, the third-quarter operating forecast will be made available on the Office of Planning and Budget website.
The information summarized above is available on the Spring 2023 Census Dashboard. (Please note that this dashboard link requires Tableau access and, for off-campus users, VPN login.) If you would like permission to access the dashboard, please contact the Center for Institutional Planning and Effectiveness (CIPE) at cipe@usfca.edu. The census dashboard will be updated by the Office of Institutional Research and Analytics (OIRA) as the office continues the quality assurance, graduation, and other checks during the two-week period after every census. We are grateful to Interim Associate Vice Provost Nathan Cain and the OIRA team for their rigor and hard work in analyzing and summarizing this crucial information for the university. We are also thankful to the graduate admission teams and program directors and the undergraduate admission and enrollment communications teams for their tremendous efforts.
Sincerely,
Shirley McGuire
Senior Vice Provost, Curricular Innovation and Inclusive Excellence
April Crabtree
Vice Provost, Strategic Enrollment Management
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