University of North Texas administrators say they will turn their recruiting attention to the Dallas-Fort Worth region in the immediate future.
It鈥檚 not that the university has overlooked the Dallas Fort-Worth area. The system has a new campus in Frisco and continues to develop partnerships with companies in the region to strengthen the pipeline from its campuses in Denton, Dallas and Fort Worth to the DFW workforce.
UNT President Harrison Keller, who has just finished his first year on the Denton campus, said the administration is paying close attention to enrollment changes as Keller implements a vision that will put considerable resources into student retention and success. Keller intends to get more students across the commencement stage and into the workforce. But the leadership has to keep enrollment on the radar, too.
鈥淟ast spring, the leadership did make a strategic decision to tap the brakes on enrollment growth and sort of reevaluate how the institution should grow. The timing of that was poor for us ... on two fronts,鈥� Keller told the Board of Regents last week. 鈥淥ne is we were just about to go into the base year that drives the state appropriations. Also, nobody could have envisioned what was going to be happening in international student enrollments.鈥�
Keller鈥檚 strategic plan has unfolded against a backdrop of galloping growth in North Texas 鈥� and a dynamic economy in the region 鈥� that has helped fuel enrollment growth at UNT for about a decade.
鈥淪o if you look at over those last 10 years, how did UNT grow? We grew about 3,500 undergraduates over the last 10 years. We grew about 130 doctoral students, and we grew 5,500 master students,鈥� Keller said. 鈥淎nd a significant number of those master students, particularly in some fields 鈥� data science, computer science 鈥� were international master鈥檚 students.鈥�
Keller said the number of undergraduates and doctoral students increased slightly between 2023 and the fall of 2024. The picture was different for the university鈥檚 enrollment in master鈥檚 programs, however.
鈥淲e were down more than 1,300 students in our master鈥檚 programs because of different market issues and also geopolitical issues around visas,鈥� Keller said.
The administration is predicting for a bigger drop in the numbers of international students enrolling in UNT master鈥檚 programs.
鈥淲e are anticipating that international master鈥檚 students in particular could decline somewhere on the order of 25% for this next fall,鈥� Keller said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not unusual for UNT. When I talk to colleagues across the state, this is part of a larger trend that we鈥檙e seeing now.鈥�
Texas universities didn鈥檛 escape the Trump administration鈥檚 recent dragnet to revoke student visas, which threw the status of thousands of international students studying at American universities into uncertainty. UNT, Texas Woman鈥檚 University and North Central Texas College all reported the revocation and eventual reinstatement of student visas.
UNT was most affected of the three, and international students have shown increasing interest in the programs that highlight the university鈥檚 status as a Tier 1 Research Institution.
A reports that if international students aren鈥檛 considered in higher education planning, enrollments at U.S. colleges and universities could drop by 5 million by 2037. Across the country, leaders in higher education and lawmakers are sounding the alarm about a coming demographic cliff: American birthrates are dropping, meaning fewer people will pursue college degrees.
When universities lose international students, they lose funding, because in order to qualify for student visas, prospective students have to be able to pay tuition and living expenses. Because of enrollment softening, UNT was down about $32 million for the legislative biennium in the state鈥檚 instruction and operations formula.
Keller said the expected dip will have 鈥渁 significant impact on our budget forecast.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 also one of the reasons that our work on student retention, student success, creating new transfer pathways, creating new enrollment pathways, and new offerings for UNT is so important right now,鈥� Keller said. 鈥淪o this is an important inflection point for UNT.鈥�
UNT Chancellor Michael R. Williams told regents that the shift means that UNT needs to 鈥渢ake full advantage of our location because we鈥檙e in the metroplex.鈥�
The enormous growth in Texas, and the mushrooming population in North Texas, means that Texas will likely feel the effects of the expected demographic cliff later than other regions.
鈥淚f you pay attention for the last five to six years to the number of university systems that have moved into the DFW metroplex because they recognize what we continually need to tap into, and own this space,鈥� Williams said. 鈥淚 hate to use the word, but it鈥檚 kind of like battle lines are drawn. I mean, that鈥檚 where recruitment lines are drawn. ... We cannot be so heavily weighted to one area of the world. We have to continue to be more diversified in how we approach our international growth. We don鈥檛 want to turn anybody away that鈥檚 qualified, but at the same time, we need to broaden our view.鈥�