University of North Texas Will Boost Regional Recruitment Strategy Amidst an Uncertain Future for International Students
The University of North Texas (UNT) will shift its recruitment efforts to the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) region, officials announced, aiming to better align enrollment with the region's job market.
While UNT has already established a presence in Frisco and nurtured relationships with regional businesses to strengthen its ties to the DFW workforce, the change marks an intention to bolster local student enrollment. UNT President Harrison Keller, who has just completed his first year on the Denton campus, believes concentrating resources on student retention and success will contribute to this objective.
Last spring, UNT leadership decided to curb enrollment growth to examine the institution's expansion strategy. Keller pointed out that the timing was inopportune, as it coincided with the critical base year determining state funding and the rapid escalation of international student visa challenges.
In the past decade, UNT enjoyed steady enrollment growth — a trend attributed to the booming economy and galloping growth in North Texas. Between 2023 and fall 2024, the university added slightly more undergraduate and doctoral students. However, master's program enrollments dropped by more than 1,300 students due to various market and geopolitical factors, particularly visa difficulties.
With declining international student enrollments, UNT expects further decreases in the upcoming academic year. Specifically, the university anticipates an approximate 25% drop in international master's students.
International students not only enhance the university's diversity but also provide essential funding, as they must demonstrate financial self-sufficiency to obtain student visas. UNT faced a financial setback of about $32 million in state funding due to a decline in enrollment for the legislative biennium.
To navigate these challenges, UNT is dedicated to improving student success and retention while diversifying enrollment and recruitment strategies to engage a wider pool of students. The university aims to expand pathways for transfers and develop new academic offerings to cater to this objective.
The university's chancellor, Michael R. Williams, emphasizes the importance of capitalizing on its location in the DFW metroplex, a region poised for continued growth and demographic stability. Williams expressed that the shift to regionally focused recruitment is reflective of a larger trend in higher education, where institutions are adapting to a potential demographic cliff arising from falling birth rates and declining international student enrollment.
When evaluating the relevance of the enrichment data, it is important to note that the study by the National Foundation for American Policy warned that a failure to consider international students in higher education planning could result in a significant drop in college enrollments by 2037, impacting institutions across the country. The data also highlights the importance of providing affordable and career-oriented online and hybrid programs as potential strategies for attracting international students in the future. While not directly mentioned in the original text, these insights provide valuable context for the strategies UNT and other institutions may consider in addressing enrollment challenges.
- To address the declining international student enrollments and prepare for potential demographic challenges, UNT aims to focus on strengthening local student enrollment in the Dallas-Fort Worth region and develop new academic offerings, including affordable and career-oriented online and hybrid programs, as part of its education-and-self-development strategy.
- In line with the larger trend in higher education, UNT is adapting its recruitment efforts by capitalizing on its location in the DFW metroplex, a region poised for continued growth and demographic stability, and expanding pathways for transfers, thereby diversifying the economy and science sectors through education.
