Mississippi State University-Meridian increased its enrollment by 14 percent for fall 2018 semester.

Terry Dale Cruse, head of campus at MSU-Meridian, said college offerings such as the MBA program, the Bulldog Free Tuition program and the Phil Hardin grant with the Meridian Public School District has allowed the numbers to go up. Cruse said he has seen the number of students in the graduate program in education go up.

MSU-Meridian’s graduate student enrollment is at a six-year high at 133 students, a 56 percent increase compared to fall 2017 numbers, according to  a news release from the school. 

“I am very excited about the number,” Cruse said.

The campus also has seen an increase in the number of elementary education majors, which has doubled since 2015, according to the release. Kim Hall, head of the school’s Division of Education, credits the implementation of the Professional Advancement Network for Teacher Assistants initiative which helps teacher assistants complete the educational requirements to become licensed teachers, as well as the modification of the program to 100 percent blended delivery.

While MSU-Meridian saw an enrollment increase, local community colleges saw declines, according to the Mississippi Public Universities news release. Meridian Community College saw a decrease of 6.3 percent, East Mississippi Community College dropped 1.9 percent and East Central Community College dropped 0.7 percent.

Meridian Community College President Thomas Huebner attributed the community college decreases to the results being based on numbers on the 10th day of classes. Huebner said most colleges, including MCC have late start terms, along with dual enrollment and online courses.

Huebner said the numbers in new student enrollment are good compared to last year and that MCC has high numbers of students taking dual enrollment/dual credit enrollment. 

According to the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning there was an enrollment decrease in eight public colleges and 15 community colleges throughout the state. Preliminary results for student enrollment for fall 2018 was 80,592 compared to 81,378 for fall 2018, which is a 1 percent decrease.