BVU Announces Fall 2016 Enrollment, Six New Programs
Buena Vista University has started the fall semester with a total of 2,115 full-time students enrolled at the Storm Lake campus and its online, site and graduate programs, including 16 locations throughout Iowa.
Buena Vista University (BVU) has started the fall semester with a total of 2,115 full-time students enrolled at the Storm Lake campus and its online, site and graduate programs, including 16 locations throughout Iowa.
Of the 2,115 total students enrolled for the 2016-17 academic year, there are 784 undergraduate students at the Storm Lake campus. Retention of first to second year students remains consistent at 73 percent, which is in line with national data for institutions similar to BVU according to the National Center for Education Statistics IPEDS Data Center. The online, site and graduate programs comprise 1,320 undergraduate and graduate students, with site and online total credit hours exceeding last year’s number of credit hours.
“Although our enrollment number is slightly down over last year, this mirrors what is largely happening among private colleges in Iowa,” said BVU President Fred Moore. “Among BV’s top 20 private competitors, 15 lost enrollments between 2014 and 2015 according to the Iowa College and University Enrollment Report, Fall 2015 prepared for the Iowa Coordinating Council on Post-High Education. We are pleased that the entering class has more out of state students, and is more ethnically diverse than in recent years,” said Moore.
BVU is also offering six new undergraduate programs this fall, and has made a commitment to offer more graduate and undergraduate programs over the course of the next five to seven years. The new programs are: biomedical sciences, strategic public relations, animation, pre-art therapy, data science and analytics and scientific illustration.
“These new programs reflect Buena Vista’s ongoing support for student learning and professional and personal development in the context of liberal arts education,” said Dr. Jim Salvucci, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty. In addition, BVU has hired 19 new full-time faculty members, including a new dean in the Harold Walter Siebens School of Business, demonstrating a commitment to academic priorities.
This fall, BVU welcomed their first class of eligible TruePromise students which promises students that they will locate a meaningful internship, earn at least one major within four years and secure a job or entrance to graduate/professional school within six months of graduation.