OREM — Utah Valley University has become the largest institution of higher education in Utah, with 33,211 students attending this fall, according to enrollment numbers released Wednesday.
UVU had a 6 percent increase and 1,879 more students over last year. Southern Utah University also saw large gains, with a 16 percent increase from last year, bringing its total to 8,881 students, according to the Utah System of Higher Education.
As a state, Utah saw a 2 percent increase and a net gain of 3,453 students attending public colleges, bringing the total up to 170,770 pupils.
Education leaders say the boost in enrollment is largely due to a surge of students returning from LDS missions after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints lowered the age requirement for missionary service in 2012.
But the growth is projected to continue, with another 50,000 students expected to enroll in the next decade.
"It is something we've been anticipating," said David Buhler, commissioner of higher education. "This first bump is not hugely challenging, but over time as we look into the future, we know that we will need to have new resources in order to be able to accommodate Utah's growing population."
Rapid growth is not new to UVU. During the institution's transition from Utah Valley State College to a four-year university, it gained roughly 10,000 students in five years, peaking in 2011. Following the age change for LDS missionary service, most institutions, including UVU, saw a slight dip in enrollment.
UVU President Matthew Holland said the rise in student numbers from 2006 and 2011 and the slight drop after the missionary age change has given university leaders and the Utah Legislature time and experience in preparing for this year's growth and that of future years.
This year, UVU accounted for more than half of the growth in public college enrollment across the state.
"This is the signal that we're back up to where we were before and that we anticipate continued growth moving forward," Holland said. "The nice thing about our situation now is that by virtue of that little lull in our enrollment, it gave us a couple years to be better prepared than we've ever been for growth moving ahead."
In addition to more freshmen enrolling at UVU, Holland said more students are choosing to stay there rather than transferring to another institution before graduating. The university's growth rate of 6 percent is expected to continue next year, with more than 40,000 students set to enroll by 2020.
It's a prospect that has UVU and other institutions asking state lawmakers to make funds available for more student support, better faculty wages and expanded capital facilities.
"We're trying to be as creative as possible and use technology and hybrid courses and pushing around-the-clock scheduling to extract as much efficiency from the campus as we can," Holland said. "But we are going to need some additional bricks and mortar."
SUU's growth of 16 percent was almost double what university leaders expected. Administrators there have put a heavy emphasis on recruiting in light of stagnant enrollment, according to university spokesman Ellen Treanor. Of all the students who were accepted to the university in recent years, only 20 percent enrolled, prompting additional focus on creating a "frictionless" enrollment process, she said.
While university leaders this year are pleased that more students than expected are choosing to come to the Cedar City university, finding a place to put them has become a matter of urgency.
"We were kind of taken off guard a little bit with our housing situation. Making sure everyone had a safe place to live was a little bit of a challenge. The second challenge on the academic side is making sure everyone has a solid class schedule," Treanor said. "We've had to stretch our resources a little bit more."
This summer, university housing, off-campus facilities and even faculty members' homes were quickly snatched up as students prepared to attend school. One of the university's longtime housing buildings, Juniper Hall, was taken offline recently because of utility problems, Treanor said, but two more housing units are scheduled to go up in the next year.
In the meantime, students and professors are welcoming the growth, she said.
"There's this renewed excitement and enthusiasm for what we're doing here," she said. "That's really satisfying to see."
Three institutions had a drop in student numbers this year. Weber State University lost 311 students, Dixie State University lost 67 and Salt Lake Community College lost 723. Buhler said the declines reflect the unique missions of those institutions, which focus on career and technical training and are more closely impacted by improving economic conditions and low unemployment rates.
The returning wave of missionaries is most visible at Brigham Young University. Last month, university leaders announced an enrollment jump of 2,943 students from last year, with 32,615 students now attending during the day. The percentage of students who have served missions also increased from 46 percent to 63 percent between 2012 and 2015, according to university spokesman Todd Hollingshead.
Not only has student headcount in Utah gone up, but the percentage of students attending college full time has also increased. Utah's full-time equivalent saw a 2.79 percent increase, compared to an overall student headcount increase of 2.06 percent, according to the Utah System of Higher Education.
The portion of students attending full time went up at five of Utah's eight public institutions. Utah State University had the largest gains, with a full-time equivalent increase about 2.5 percent beyond its gains in headcount.
"The good news about that is we know that students who are able to go full time are more likely to finish their degrees," Buhler said. "That isn't to say that sometimes that's all students can do is go part time, and of course we'd encourage them to do whatever they can and as much as they can. But to see this increase in full-time equivalent, I think, is the most significant."
In terms of headcount, UVU is the largest institution with 33,211 students, followed by BYU with 32,615, the University of Utah with 31,673, Salt Lake Community College has 28,814 students, Utah State University has 28,622, Weber State University with 25,955, Southern Utah University with 8,881, Dixie State University with 8,503, and Snow College with 5,111 students.
Administrators at Westminster College said they plan on finalizing this year's enrollment numbers later this month.
Western Governors University, a private online institution based in Utah, currently enrolls more than 60,700 students, but only about 4,300 live in Utah, according to an Aug. 31 enrollment count.
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