Fayetteville State sees record-high enrollment; FTCC has fourth year of growth

Fayetteville State University is celebrating a record-high enrollment this fall. 

The school has 7,628 students this semester, more than ever recorded, Chancellor Darrell T. Allison said. In fall 2024, the school had more than 7,100 students.

Across town, Fayetteville Technical Community College has also seen enrollment rise steadily for the past four years. Nearly 31,000 are enrolled this fall, up 5% from last year at this time, President Mark A. Sorrells told CityView.

Enrollment data for Methodist University in Fayetteville will likely be available in October, spokesman Brad Johnson said.

Fayetteville State exceeded its expectations

This time last year, Fayetteville State anticipated it would have about 7,500 students this fall. Allison said he was “quite surprised” when he saw the enrollment figures were higher than expected.

This year’s freshman class of 820 students is the largest since 2007, the university said. Allison said their average high school grade point average is 3.32 on a 4-point scale. In fall 2021, when Allison started, the average GPA of incoming freshmen was 3.13, the university said.

Allison cited several factors behind the growth in FSU’s student population:

• Programs such as free summer school, which are designed to prevent students from dropping out and ensure they graduate in four years, are working.
• Fayetteville State is part of the N.C. Promise tuition program, which aims to keep tuition affordable. Tuition is $500 per semester for in-state undergraduate students and $2,500 per semester for out-of-state undergrads.
• Fayetteville State’s partnerships with Fayetteville Tech and other community colleges allows students with two-year degrees to smoothly transfer to FSU to complete their four-year degrees. Graduates from FTCC and several other schools can earn scholarships to attend FSU for free.
• About 2,500 students are from military families stationed at Fort Bragg. The university offers scholarships so military-connected students (service members, veterans and dependents) can attend tuition-free.
• The university reaches out to “non-traditional” students, also known as adult learners 25 or older. Almost half of FSU’s students are adult learners, Allison said.

The university has launched and grown programs that students want and are in high demand in the jobs market, Allison said, such as nursing, cybersecurity and supply chain management.

FTCC advancing lifelong learning

Sorrells at Fayetteville Tech said its relationship with Fayetteville State is one of the reasons for its growing enrollment. “The partnerships are critically important, and we’re working to build more pathways from two-year to four-year,” he said.

About 2,000 FTCC students are still in high school, he said, and some graduate from FTCC before they graduate from high school. That sets them up with two years of college completed, and they can then go to Fayetteville State to complete a four-year degree.

Fayetteville Tech also seeks to connect to adult learners, Sorrells said. The average age of its students is 27 to 28, “which is about three to four years older than most of the other community colleges,” he said.

The school strives to identify potential students who are underemployed and offer them the job skills needed for the future, he said.

“So in Cumberland County there’s 55% of the population that either has some college-no degree, or a high school degree or less,” Sorrells said. “And that population is the population that we’re really focused on.”

Higher education is in a transition, Sorrells said.

In the past, the emphasis was on getting a degree, and many jobs wanted a bachelor degree, he said But now businesses and industries are starting to focus on certifications and credentials for particular skills. FTCC is adapting to that demand, he said.

Sorrells called it “more of a lifelong learning model, where people can come in and get what they need, quickly exit back into the marketplace. And then when future opportunities come, there are more programs that are there, that are designed to get them that skill that they need to upskill toward, to qualify and be competitive for those jobs of the future.”

Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.

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