Central Michigan Univeristy's enrollment numbers are down by 183 students -- about 1.25% -- compared to the same time frame in 2022, according to a report released by the university's Academic Planning and Analysis Department.

The report for the fall 2023 semester has been finalized, showing a headcount of 14,411 students and an one-year retention rate of 72.8%, followed by a two-year retention rate of 63.5%. While the one-year retention rate rose slightly from 2022, it did drop by almost 3% for two-year data.

"The reason our overall enrollment is down is because as each class has gotten smaller," Vice President of Student Recruitment and Retention Jennifer DeHaemers said. "When you're graduating with people who got here four years ago, it's a bigger class than the incoming ones. We believe that this coming fall we will stabilize that, bringing in about the same number of students that were graduating."

The enrollment rates have been steadily declining at CMU over the last eight years. The last peak of enrollment was in 2015, with 25,528 total students; 6,147 of which were graduate students.

"For a number of years has been going down and it's due to a lot of things including how other universities in the state are competing against us for students," DeHaemers said. "It's also due to the fact that in Michigan, like a lot of states in the United States, there are fewer students of that 18-year-old age range. That demographic of students has been declining across the country for some time and certainly in the state of Michigan, so there are fewer students to recruit."

When calculating the enrollment numbers, the university looks at the location by admission and by course. For admission location, an unduplicated count is taken, meaning each student is only counted once and assigned to one specific location. For course locations, students can be counted multiple times if enrolled at multiple campuses, such as at the main campus and online.

Statistics show a decrease in various areas of admission location and course locations, with the most staggering drop being in face-to-face courses. For admission location, global face-to-face enrollment dropped by roughly 46.5%, and for course location the global face-to-face enrollment dropped by roughly 47.3%.

Despite these decreases, there have still been an influx of new students, according to the report. New freshmen, transfers and re-admitted students have increased every year since 2021.

"That's two years of new student increases," DeHaemers said. "New student (enrollment) gap in 2021 was 1200 students, in 2022 that gap was 800 students (and) in 2023 that gap was 152 students. We believe that this coming year we should most likely stabilize and either have flat enrollment or even an increase with our undergraduate students. We think we're going to turn the corner in 2024."

The most notable increase has been in international students, which more than doubled from 2021 to 2022. This year, the statistics have increased again, showing around a 42.2% increase from 2022.

"In fall of 2019 we hired a new person in charge of international recruiting and admissions, (Dr. Ling Zhang), and then she's very experienced (and) has a lot of contacts," DeHaemers said. "(When) COVID hit, she would hold webinars in international countries and she'd present all hours of the day ... She built relationships with people through the advisors and people who were working with students."

This is a developing story. Check in with CM-Life.com for updates.