UNO Reports Historic First Year Student Enrollment for Fall 2022

The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) achieved its tenth consecutive year of more than 15,000 students, bolstered by a school-record enrollment of 2,344 new first-time students, according to new enrollment data released today.

UNO Chancellor Joanne Li, Ph.D., CFA, credited a university-wide commitment to student academic performance, developing pathways to careers, and community partnerships for the enrollment total of 15,058 Mavericks.

“Incredible things happen when you are fully committed to putting students in a position to achieve lifelong success,” Li said. “Our faculty and staff stepped up in a major way to build on a strong foundation and ensure that every learner we make a connection with is supported at every step of their academic journey – from their first campus visit to graduation – and I can’t thank them enough. We owe it to all Nebraskans to continue to innovate our approaches to enrollment and retention, but we are incredibly excited to see what this historic class of new Mavericks achieve as part of this incredible campus community.”

Programs, projects, and initiatives that contributed to student success include:

• The introduction of Career Connect, a collaborative program that opens doors to paid internships for UNO students with more than 60 area employers.

• Increased digital resources and access to no-cost or low-cost materials, which has helped save UNO students more than $2 million to date.

• The Nebraska Promise program, which allows students from families making less than $65,000 to attend UNO and other University of Nebraska System campuses tuition free.

Although UNO’s overall enrollment total decreased by 1.8% from Fall 2021, this year’s student body is among the largest in the past 20 years. Notably, the university posted a 74% first-time student retention rate from the Fall 2021 to Fall 2022 semester, an 8% increase over last year’s retention rate. UNO also increased the number of undergraduate students of color by 2.1% – bringing the total to 4,136, or approximately 34.4% of the undergraduate student body – and the number of international graduate students by 17.2% from Fall 2021. In addition, three of UNO’s six academic colleges experienced undergraduate enrollment growth from Fall 2021, including the College of Information Science & Technology, which experienced 9.6% growth.