Student enrollment at UNMC set another record high for the 16th straight year with 3,861 students enrolled for the 2016-17 school year, an increase of 71 students or 1.9 percent over last year’s record of 3,790.
“UNMC is pleased to see that our enrollment was up again by almost 2 percent from the record enrollment of last year,” said Dele Davies, M.D., vice chancellor for academic affairs and dean for graduate studies. “This reflects the ongoing strong interest and confidence in the high quality of our health professions training programs, especially as we continue to strive to meet the health care workforce needs for the state of Nebraska.
“With more nursing and allied health programs in our new facility in Kearney, we have been able to improve access for rural students to get their health education closer to home. More students also are enrolling in our public health programs, which is important to our goal of helping Nebraska become the healthiest state in the nation.”
Below are some of the highlights.
College of Dentistry
The College of Dentistry admitted 48 new dental students and 24 new dental hygiene students. The total student enrollment is 274, including 35 post-graduate students. Hometown demographics of the incoming dental class is 33 rural and 15 urban students. For dental hygiene, it’s 14 rural and 10 urban students. The gender demographic of incoming dental students is 19 women and 29 men, and for dental hygiene it is 22 women and two men. There were 692 applications for the 48 slots in this year’s dental class.
College of Medicine
There are 132 new students entering their first year of medical school, bringing the total enrollment to 515, which includes 35 students in the M.D./Ph.D. Scholars Program. The new students in the college, 80 percent of whom are Nebraska residents, were selected from a total of 1,994 applicants, one of the largest applicant pools in the last 22 years.
College of Nursing
A total of 1,078 students are enrolled through the college’s five campuses in Omaha, Lincoln, Kearney, Norfolk and Scottsbluff. The biggest growth in enrollment came in the doctor of nursing practice program which increased 119 percent, going from 52 students to 114. Other increases can be attributed to the expanded capacity in Kearney, where the UNMC-UNK Health Science Education Complex opened in fall 2015. The college received 766 qualified bachelor’s degree in nursing applications this year, an increase of 30 percent over last year’s BSN applications. The college also received 249 applications for the master’s degrees and doctoral programs, an increase of 18 percent over last year.
College of Pharmacy
Sixty-four new students with an average GPA of 3.6 were accepted into the College of Pharmacy’s doctor of pharmacy degree program. Ninety percent of the new students are Nebraska residents with 38 percent coming from rural areas. The new students bring the total enrollment in the four-year program to 240 students.
College of Public Health
Enrollment in the College of Public Health this fall is 201 for its professional programs, which includes 160 master degree students and 41 certificate students. This represents an 11 percent increase in professional program enrollment over fall 2015. Enrollment in the College of Public Health’s campus and online programs continues to grow as students accept the challenge of making Nebraska the healthiest state in the union and a global model.
College of Allied Health Professions
For the 2016-17 academic year, a total of 587 students are enrolled in the college, including campus and online students. The college has more than tripled its enrollment at the UNMC-UNK Health Science Education Complex in Kearney since last year, and has increased its overall enrollment by nearly 4 percent. The college now has a total of 23 degree tracks available to students from 11 different health care professions.
Graduate Studies
Enrollment in doctoral and master’s programs in graduate studies is 443. The Graduate College of the University of Nebraska is a system-wide college with programs administered on each of the four University of Nebraska campuses. The Graduate Studies programs at UNMC offer advanced instruction leading to master’s and doctoral degrees in health-related areas.
Munroe-Meyer Institute
Munroe-Meyer Institute provided interdisciplinary training, course work, and practicum experiences to 163 students in the 2015-2016 academic year. Trainees included 23 undergraduate students, 37 master’s level students, 83 doctoral level students/interns, 15 post-doctoral fellows, and training for 5 other trainees, which include family members who serve as parent advocates to affect systems change such as working with the legislature and serving on community boards.