Temple’s graduate enrollment has increased 73.45 percent since 2010, swelling much more in recent years than a sample of other local schools, according to recent data.
“Students look for the places where they can be best advanced and Temple is … definitely one of those places,” said Zebulon Kendrick, vice provost of graduate education.
Collectively, in the six Temple campuses and off-campus sites, statistics show graduate students in Fall 2010 totaling 5,408. There weren’t drastic changes in 2011 and 2012, but enrollment climbed in 2013 with a 71.18 percent increase to 9,377 matriculated and non-matriculated graduate students – 3,899 more than the previous year. In 2014, statistics showed a steady increase of 0.03 percent with 9,380 enrolled students.
Kendrick said new faculty hires and increased focus on research under the new administration led to the enrollment increases.
“Their commitment to enhance the research of Temple University and the research presence with their hires of these outstanding faculty has resulted in very positive notice across the country and internationally about Temple’s programs,” he said.
Faculty hires are a critical factor for getting the best graduate students, Kendrick added.
“We attract students to Temple that also have fellowships and offers at schools like Stanford, Duke, Harvard, Yale, Princeton … they come to Temple because of the quality and the interest of the research the faculty members are doing,” Kendrick said.
“And of course, if you can choose those level schools, you’re talking about the quality of the faculty member, so it’s our job to make sure when we go to recruitment fairs and when people contact Temple that we let them know about the quality of our faculty,” Kendrick added.
Phyllis Tutora, director of graduate enrollment management for the Fox School of Business, said she believed recent rankings from U.S. News & World Report had boosted the school’s reputation.
The school’s Online MBA program was ranked No. 1 in January, and the Global MBA was recently ranked No. 41 in the nation.
“We’ve consistently grown,” Tutora said. “For graduate numbers I would say anywhere from 20 to 30 percent each year across all of our graduate programs.”
Other area schools have seen increases in enrollment as well, but none as much as Temple. Villanova University, which has an enrollment of 3,617 graduate students, has seen a 3.67 percent increase since Fall 2010, with some fluctuations along the way.
Pennsylvania State University saw a 7.23 percent increase since Fall 2010 and enrolls 13,591 graduate students, with steady increases.
St. Joseph’s University, which offers more than 30 areas of study for graduates and 11 online programs showed an overall 2.29 percent increase since Fall 2010, currently enrolling 3,580 students total.
Though many students come back to Temple for a higher degree after completing an undergraduate program, many are recruited from other schools, Kendrick said.
“[There are] faculty who have an active research agenda,” Kendrick said.
“We do recruitment fairs like everybody else. We also target specific recruitment fairs to try to attract domestic minority students to Temple. Because [our] reputation is improving … with publications and grants – not just journal articles and getting grants, but also books and chapters of books – that attracts students.”
Maryvic Perez can be reached at maryvic.perez@temple.edu.
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