The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education is reporting increased enrollment for the first time in over a decade.
PASSHE says about 83-thousand students are enrolled across its ten campuses for the fall 2025 semester, representing an increase of six-tenths of a percent across the 10 universities. Student retention rates were also at its highest point in history at 81%. That exceeded the national average for similar institutions. 89% of PASSHE students are from Pennsylvania, meaning that the state system universities enroll more in-state students than any other four-year university in the commonwealth.
PASSHE is preparing for the future as they foresee the number of high school graduates will go down, challenging college enrollment across the country. The state system is getting ready for that drop by streamlining operations and aligning academic programs with workforce needs to help ease worker shortages.
Among the highlights noted by the State System in its announcement was IUP’s record-breaking retention rate for first-time, full-time students, increasing by nearly three percentage points to 78.2%.
Board Chair Dr. Cynthia Shapira said the enrollment numbers demonstrate the “value, affordability, and career relevance of a PASSHE education across the Commonwealth.”
