New Mexico State University’s Graduate School saw an 18 percent increase in new students for the fall 2019 semester and the first overall enrollment gains for the grad school in the past decade. In all, 2,621 students were enrolled in the NMSU Graduate School this semester. The increase played an important role in stabilizing the university’s overall enrollment this year.
“Graduate students are choosing to come to NMSU because we provide programs that give them the training and experience needed to land exciting, rewarding and high-paying jobs,” said Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School Luis Cifuentes. “In particular, I want to highlight the work done by Associate Vice President for Research Luis Vazquez and Assistant Dean for the Graduate School Denise Esquibel. They are the ones who made this happen.”
“The Graduate School has been progressing in several areas and making strides in developing opportunities for change,” Vazquez said. “We have taken inventory of our current resources and partnerships, and we have restructured to better leverage these assets.”
Vazquez credited steps taken to collaboratively work with partners across campus and integrate the marketing of services provided by the Graduate School through digital and traditional media. He also pointed to creating an innovative, developmental strategic plan of success as a reason for the unit’s growth.
“The combination of using 21st-century recruiting tools and the growth of online master’s professional degree programs has me optimistic about continuing grown and the future of our grad school,” Cifuentes said. “The reason we’re growing in numbers is we are providing many different pathways to jobs that require graduate-level education. We have great programs across the board, a diversity of programs with an increase in the flexibility for taking those courses.”
“We’re doing everything possible to help ensure the success of graduate students who have chosen NMSU as the ‘University of Choice for Graduate Education,’” Vazquez said.
NMSU’s new strategic plan, LEADS 2025, outlines student success and social mobility as its first goal. Objectives for this goal include diversifying, optimizing and increasing system-wide enrollment. Increasing student learning, retention and degree attainment are also priorities. Another key goal is ensuring the university is fiscally responsible while keeping costs affordable for students.
Information from NMSU