Engineering enrollment at all-time high, contributing to UNL record

Continued steady growth in undergraduate enrollment in the College of Engineering has helped the University of Nebraska-Lincoln surge to an all-time high in enrollment for the second straight year.

The university announced Thursday that fall 2016 enrollment at UNL is 25,897 students, surpassing the previous record enrollment of 25,260 set last year.

The College of Engineering has a record total enrollment (undergraduate and graduate students) of 3,560, a 2.1 percent rise from fall 2015's enrollment total of 3,487.

Fall 2016 continues an upward trend for engineering enrollment, which is 660 students (22.8 percent) higher than 2,900 students in 2007. It is the eighth yearly increase for the college in nine years.

The increase includes 3,066 undergraduate students, the college's highest total ever and 58 more than in fall 2015. A big factor in the undergraduate enrollment numbers is the rise in nonresident students, which jumped 6.6 percent this fall to 708, up from 664 last year.

The college also has 494 graduate students, 15 more than in fall 2015 (a 3.1 percent increase). This rise is in part fueled by a 4.1 percent increase in nonresident students.

Engineering's growth among nonresident students is consistent with trends for UNL.

The college has a 5.8 percent increase in nonresident enrollment (6.6 percent for undergraduate students and 4.1 percent for graduate students), while UNL has increased 6.7 percent overall. Nonresident students make up 29.2 percent of engineering enrollment, only slightly lower than the 31.4 percent for UNL.