“Your Name”

Professor Robert Figueroa

CGS 1100

October 30, 2002

Enrollment Totals at USF from 1997-2002: An Overview

Introduction

This report accompanies and summarizes a data analysis using Microsoft Excel, in which the author examined overall enrollment figures (part time and full time, graduate as well as undergraduate) at all campuses of the University of South Florida for the past five years. This simple analysis reveals moderate but steady enrollment growth over the last three years, and a trend toward more full-time versus part-time students over that same period. It projects continued enrollment growth for the 2002 – 2003 year.

Totals, Percentages and Growth Rates

After holding steady at around 34,000 from the 1997-98 to the 1998-99 school year, overall USF enrollment has grown to over 37,000 by Fall 2001, demonstrating an average yearly growth rate of 3.5%. Based on this average, 2002-03 enrollment should approach 39,000. As Table 1 below shows, full time enrollment may reach 58% of total enrollment in 2002-03, if this trend holds (the final row, marked with an asterisk, is a projected figure for 2002-03 based on the average growth rate over the last three years). Figure 1 below graphs overall enrollment growth, while Figure 2 visually demonstrates that part time enrollment, as a percentage of overall enrollment, is decreasing relative to full time employment, which is shown keeping pace with overall growth in Figure 3.

Table 1: Summary Findings

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

Conclusion

USF at its main Tampa campus is now a fairly long-established, mature university. Given this, the recent growth spurt and trends at USF mostly reflect, I believe, the growth of its newer campuses in surrounding areas, including Sarasota. Growth at these regional campuses would also help explain the trend toward more full time students versus part time, since a higher percentage of undergraduates tend to study full time, as opposed to graduate students, and the regional campuses concentrate mostly in undergraduate programs. These are purely suppositions, however. Further research into the copious enrollment data provided by the source for all the data used here (cited below) would yield concrete answers to such questions, but are beyond the scope of this brief overview.

Source

USF Fact Book. Budget and Policy Analysis Office, University of South Florida. http://usfweb.usf.edu/bpa/FactBook/