University of Montana Enrollment Stands at 14,525

University of Montana fall enrollment stands at 14,525 full time equivalent students, resulting in a loss of state funding shortfall of 1.85 percent, or almost $3 million dollars.

Vice President for Integrated Communications Peggy Kuhr said on Thursday, November 7, that those numbers actually met the fall enrollment projections.

"Every year we project what we expect our enrollment is going to be and we build a budget off of those projections," Kuhr said. "Our student headcount met our projections, in that we knew it was a small class from last fall, and that's going to ripple through for about four years. We were down by about 420 students, which met our projections."

Kuhr said the overall number of students stands at 14,525, but funding also relies on the number of credit hours each student is taking.

"What's important for budget reasons is to look at the number of credits they're taking, and whether they're in-state or out-of-state," Kuhr said. "Out-of-state students pay more in tuition than Montana residents. Altogether, we have exceeded our projections for head-count, but when it came to out-of-state students, especially in the upper division courses, our projections were higher than the number of actual students enrolled, and so that means we have less revenue coming in."

Kuhr said that despite the funding deficit, the affect should be minimal on students and staff.

"So, this all leads to just about 2 percent of shortfall that we need to adjust our budget to meet," Kuhr said. "That relates to just under $3 million in an overall budget that totals over $161 million. We believe through the office of finance and administration that we'll be able to make up that difference without affecting courses, students or faculty."

According to Kuhr, a vigorous program is now underway by officials to more aggressively promote the university throughout the state and the rest of the country to draw more students in the coming year.