MARQUETTE, MI-- Northern Michigan University officials are focusing on increasing enrollment from outside the Upper Peninsula over the next few years.
That’s according to President David Haynes, who hosted a campus forum Thursday.
Haynes says efforts aim to recruit more students from Lower Michigan and other states, and the International Program is concentrating on Canada, China, India, Vietnam, Korea, and the United Arab Emirates.
“I think we have a wonderful product to offer and a great intellectual capacity and base here and a wonderful place,” he says, “that we think between that and our faculty we can really improve our numbers.”
Haynes has set a goal of 2-percent growth per year over the next three years, with an eye toward an enrollment of 9,700 students.
Admissions officials say the current challenge is that the number of U.P. high school graduates continues to decline. U.P. residents make up the majority of NMU’s student body.
Officials are also waiting for Governor Rick Snyder’s final budget June 1. He’s proposing a 2-percent increase for higher education.
