Eclipsing the formidable 10,000-student mark, Augusta University celebrated on Thursday, Nov. 16, having 10,546 students officially enrolled as it continues to grow faster than other universities in Georgia.
Marking the highest growth in a single year with a 7.5% increase over the previous fall’s 9,813 enrollment total, and a 26.6% increase since 2015, AU leaders, faculty, staff and students commemorated the feat at the Douglas Barnard Amphitheater on the Summerville campus.
“Augusta University is a place to not only receive a quality education, but also to build a fulfilling career and make a positive impact on the lives of others, and that is shown in the continued growth of our student body, the addition of quality academic programs and the number of successful graduates those programs produce,” said President of Augusta University Brooks A. Keel.
This year’s freshmen class included 1,162 students – the largest freshman class in the university’s history – and was up 17.2% with out-of-area students making up 58% of the class.
Opening the event, Keel thanked his dedicated staff and faculty for their tireless work to ensure the university’s constant growth, and spoke of his pride that students committed to attending AU to pursue a higher education.
“The fact that we’ve been able to break this mythical glass ceiling of 10,000 is absolutely phenomenal,” he said. “This is a true milestone and I could not be more proud. We’ve had a goal of hitting 16,000 by 2030, but hitting that number is not as important as keeping us on the road to get there.”
With graduate and professional student enrollment accounting for a significant portion of AU’s growth, the university experienced a 9.5% overall increase in enrollment with 20.5% being first-time students from fall 2022.
In addition to hardworking staff, according to a press release from the university, the fall launch of Augusta University Online introduced 166 new students enrolling in three graduate programs: the Master of Science in Information Security Management, Master of Education in Instruction and Master of Public Health.
“On top of another year of strong growth in enrollment, Augusta University continues to see strong growth in the number of graduates we produce in areas that are most in demand across our state and region,” said Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Neil MacKinnon. “Augusta University graduates excel in the workforce in all areas, including computer and cyber sciences, health care, education and more, and we are committed to guiding students to success across all of our 155 programs.”
The deans of the top five colleges, which showed the most enrollment growth at Augusta University, were awarded trophies prior to the conclusion of the celebratory event. The top five colleges honored were the College of Public Health, the College of Science and Mathematics, the Medical College of Georgia, the School of Computer and Cyber Sciences and the College of Education and Human Development, respectively.
Enrolling at exactly 10:01 a.m., AU’s 10,001 student Jennifer Kolmar, an assistant principal for Evans High School, said the timing was “just destined to be.”
“I got my first master’s degree here in 2010, so I have been part of Augusta University for 13 years now, and boy has it grown,” she said. “I have the career I have today because of the education that I received here during my master’s program.”
Praising the university for taking the effort to identify and provide community needs and wants, Kolmar said she was honored to be a returning Jaguar.
“I’m excited to be back in school here and getting all the education I can from here,” she said. “I really think that they invest in their students and provide us the opportunity to grow and thrive in our field.”
As AU continues to grow, invite and prepare for more students to join the various master programs, Keel said the leaders are looking forward to adding more infrastructure to support the ultimate goal of 16,000 total students enrolled by 2030.
