University of Georgia 2023

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As the birthplace of public higher education in America, the University of Georgia provides a superior teaching and learning environment that serves a diverse student body and promotes student success. The University is committed to inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs, researchers, and informed citizens who will change the world. A land-grant and sea-grant university, it is the state’s oldest and most comprehensive institution of higher education. Its motto, “to teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things,” reflects the University’s integral role in the intellectual, cultural, social, and economic strengths of both the state and the nation.

The 2022-2023 school year was one of the best in our institution’s history. To promote excellence in teaching and learning, the University expanded active learning methods in classroom instruction and hired additional faculty and advisors in high-demand fields. We achieved higher enrollment and completion rates than ever before. In addition, new scholarships are helping UGA recruit and retain top undergraduate students, while initiatives like the rural student ALL Georgia program are ensuring that more Georgians can access the world-class education we provide.

1.A: Enrollment Trends

Enrollment at the University of Georgia continues to be strong.  Overall enrollment is now 41,615, with 31,514 undergraduates, 8,428 graduate students, and 1,673 students studying in professional schools. Enrollment has grown 20% over the last 10 years at a steady rate of 2% per year.  Undergraduate enrollment has increased on average 1.9% each year.  Graduate enrollment has seen the largest average increase of 2.4% increase each year, and professional school enrollment has remained mostly steady, increasing an average of 0.3% per year. In anticipation of continued growth, the university is in the early stages of creating a strategic enrollment management plan for the next five years. The university’s strategic enrollment plan will focus on establishing new first-year and transfer enrollment targets, optimizing retention and completion rates, expanding graduate education participation among current UGA students, and identifying opportunities to increase online graduate and professional student enrollment in high-demand academic areas. See Appendix A for detailed information.

1.B: Student Demographics

There is no single undergraduate student profile at the University of Georgia. Rather the institution welcomes diverse students with widely varying backgrounds, interests, experiences, and challenges. The typical UGA undergraduate is of traditional age (≤ 24 years), enters as a first-year student, lives on campus for the first year, and is seeking a first undergraduate degree. In Fall 2022, the total undergraduate population numbered 30,714 students, the vast majority of whom hailed from the state of Georgia (84% vs. 14% out-of-state and 1% international). The majority of undergraduate students (94%) were enrolled full time; 58% were female; 17% were Pell-eligible; and 13% with neither parent completing a bachelor’s degree. On average, the 2022 first-time, full-time cohort matriculated with 19 AP/IB/dual enrollment courses. In addition to fulfilling our mission to serve the entire state of Georgia, UGA is committed to recruiting, retaining, and supporting the academic success of underrepresented, first-generation, rural, and other traditionally underserved students and to increasing the affordability of a UGA degree.

1.C: Financial Aid

UGA launched the Georgia Commitment Scholarship campaign to put a UGA education within the financial reach of more residents of the state. The GCS program is a need-based scholarship program that is available to first-year undergraduate students. The scholarship, which is renewable for up to four years (8 semesters), comes with a variety of programs and resources to support student success. The total number of GCS recipients has steadily increased from 94 in AY 2017-18 to 693 in 2022-23. For the 2022-2023 academic year, the Office of Student Financial Aid disbursed a total of $405,590,646 of federal, state, institutional, and other/external programs to 29,414 unique undergraduate students (17.3% of whom received a Federal Pell Grant with over 157 students self-identifying as independent, i.e., former foster youth, wards of the court, orphans, homeless or with legal guardians). To increase affordability, UGA no longer charges students any lab and course material fees or the special institutional fee. The university believes that finding new ways to remove financial barriers for our students is part of our mission.

1.D: Student Success Metrics

Once on campus, UGA students thrive. The university’s first-year retention rate, the percentage of first-time, first-year undergraduate students who continue at UGA the next year, is 95%. The retention rate for first generation students is 93%, and 96% of students from rural areas return to UGA for their second year. The university’s four-year completion rate reached a record 75.1% in 2022 and its six-year completion rate reached a new high of 88%. UGA’s success exceeds the average completion and retention rates of its peer institutions. The average six-year completion rate at UGA’s comparator peer institutions is 80.3%, while the average rate of UGA’s aspirational peers is 85.3%. UGA students’ experience on campus prepares them for continued success after graduation. According to career outcomes data released by the UGA Career Center, 96% of class of 2022 graduates were employed or continuing their education within six months of graduation. This year marks UGA’s 11th consecutive year with a career outcomes rate of 90% or higher. The career outcomes rate of UGA’s previous seven graduating classes has consistently been 8% to 11% higher than the national career outcomes rate, as published by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

1.E: National Reputation and Rankings

UGA continues to be highly ranked among various media outlets for excellence in student life, academics, value, and diversity. The University of Georgia was recently ranked No. 9 on the latest list of Top Public Universities in the U.S. by the rankings platform Niche. The 2024 ranking, is based on Niche’s analysis of academic, admissions, financial and student life data from the U.S. Department of Education. For the eighth consecutive year, the University of Georgia ranks in the top 20 among the nation’s best public universities, according to U.S. News & World Report. The University of Georgia School of Law was recently named the nation’s best value in legal education. Notably, this is the fourth time in the last six years that the school has occupied the top spot in the National Jurist ranking, including a historic three-peat at the No. 1 position from 2018 to 2020. The University of Georgia has earned national recognition for its commitment to inclusive excellence for the 10th consecutive year. The Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity is the only national recognition honoring colleges and universities that demonstrate outstanding efforts and success in promoting inclusive excellence.

Among public universities, the University of Georgia is one of the nation’s top three producers of Rhodes Scholars (27). UGA is also home to hundreds of major scholarship winners, including: 2 Churchill Scholars, 2 Beinecke Scholars, 7 Marshall Scholars, 64 Goldwater Scholars, 11 Truman Scholars, 25 Udall Scholars, 56 Boren Scholars, 6 Schwarzman Scholars, 3 Mitchell Scholars and 143 Fulbright Student Scholars. In the 2022-2023 academic year, UGA students were selected for some of the most prestigious academic awards, including the Rhodes Scholarship, the Marshall Scholars, and the Schwarzman Scholars. These accomplishments indicate success in fulfilling our academic mission. They are the result of an outstanding student body as well as our longstanding investment in the student experience. UGA has prioritized faculty hiring to improve classroom instruction, enhancements in academic advising to keep students on track, and the creation of programs focused on active learning (our current QEP), mentoring, tutoring, and peer-learning to increase student success.

UGA’s comprehensive degree programs, in concert with its innovative learning environment, demonstrate that UGA—thanks to its faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends—is creating leaders who are shaping the future of our state, nation, and world.

Section 2: UGA’s Student Success Inventory

UGA’s student success inventory considers our specific student population, targets those areas where there are opportunities to make a significant impact, is data-informed, and zeroes in on actions and policies that suit our highly decentralized institution. Throughout the Momentum Approach process, UGA has targeted three of the five Momentum Approach components identified by USG

UGA’s Student Success Inventory spans the student life cycle from Orientation through graduation. During their degree program, we want them to develop and hone 21st-century competencies in communication, data, and other skills that will enable them to tackle real-world problems and use critical-thinking and problem-solving skills to solve multifaceted problems that do not have simple solutions. In addition to improving our 4-year graduation rate, our overarching goals are to help each student declare the major that best fits their skills and aspirations as early as possible and then navigate that major successfully, using the Orientation Intake Survey, the Advising Program Plans, and our six Major Focus Areas. UGA works to ensure that our graduates are prepared for their future, have academically matured during their time at UGA, and can demonstrate that they possess the deep and sustained involvement, passion, and dedication that employers seek and that life in the 21st century requires.