The final numbers are in, and our fall enrollment increase is up by 2.45 percent from last year’s count.

That’s somewhat higher than the average increase of 2.2 percent for all universities in the Tennessee Board of Regents system.

Final figures also confirm our preliminary reports that student enrollment would exceed 9,000 for the first time and mark the third year in a row that we've experienced record growth.

Surpassing last year’s record of 8,890, the final census taken after the Labor Day weekend shows our total number of students at 9,107.

New freshman and undergraduate transfer student enrollment numbers remain relatively constant, but preliminary admissions statistics show that the academic quality of entering students has improved, with enrollment in the Honors Program up by about 50 percent.

Of the total 7,273 undergraduates, Engineering majors and Arts & Sciences majors each account for slightly more than 20 percent of the total. About 19 percent of the total are majoring in Business Administration, and nearly 18 percent of undergraduates are Education majors.

The most significant area of growth was in the number of graduate students, which increased by about 8 percent from last year for a total of 1,834. Of that number, 560 are new graduate students.