Mississippi Public Universities will release fall enrollment figures in early November rather than publishing the preliminary figures that have traditionally been released in mid-September.
“Preliminary figures represent a snapshot of enrollment on a particular day,” said Dr. Alfred Rankins Jr., Commissioner of Higher Education. “As students continue to work through the admissions and financial aid processes on our respective campuses in order to complete the enrollment process, these numbers will change. Reporting the figures in November will provide a more complete and accurate picture of enrollment.”
Previously, the fall enrollment releases included comparisons between preliminary enrollment from the current fall semester and final enrollment from the prior fall semester. Moving forward, final fall semester enrollment will be compared with final enrollment from the previous fall semester.
The intent is to minimize confusion between preliminary and final enrollment numbers and align the release of enrollment numbers with a consensus reached several months ago by the Chancellor/Presidents to establish an enrollment census date later in the fall semester to facilitate more accurate enrollment reporting and better position our universities in comparative outcome metrics used by the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) that is part of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).