Thread: UNC System Prepares For Drastic Spike In Student Population

UNC System Prepares For Drastic Spike In Student Population

POSTED: 9:28 am EDT March 16, 2007

GREENVILLE, N.C. -- The University of North Carolina system believes its student population may grow by nearly 50 percent over the next decade, a sharp spike that could force the schools to revise their education process.

UNC system president Erskine Bowles said the system will have to devise creative and cost-effective approaches. That may include more online learning, year-round classes and closer affiliations with community colleges and high schools.

"We have a lot of people to accommodate, and we don't have the physical space to do that," Bowles said Thursday.

By 2017, the UNC system expects demand to reach nearly 300,000, compared with a current enrollment of 202,381.

That population boom will also reshape the demographics of the universities. Hispanic students make up 2.7 percent of all freshmen in the UNC system, but in the next decade, roughly one-quarter of all high school graduates in North Carolina will be Hispanic.

To address growth concerns, the system is launching an initiative called UNC Tomorrow, which will be tasked with a massive planning effort that will draw input from citizens and community leaders around the state.

"Constructing new buildings won't be the answer, at least not totally," said Norma Mills, executive director of UNC Tomorrow.

Online classes will be a major focus. This spring, the UNC system will coordinate more than 90 existing online degree programs into one program, called UNC Online. System leaders hope to eventually expand the program beyond North Carolina -- both nationally and internationally.

"There is tremendous demand for students who want the convenience of online education," said Rick Niswander, dean of the business school at East Carolina University.

At ECU, for example, the College of Business launched six years ago a distance education program for students pursuing a master's degree in business administration. While only 8 percent of students attended exclusively online when the program began, 51 percent were online-only in 2006.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press.

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/11269784/detail.html

In recognition of the $50 million the School of Public Health will be renamed the “Dennis and Joan Gillings School of Global Public Health.”

http://link.toolbot.com/unc.edu/69291

Yeap, I just love my tax $$ being spent of the "global" school. NOT!

Oh My God! They are serious!

This is insane!

W

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

Oh My God! They are serious!

This is insane!

W

They have to pay Erskin Bowles $500,000 salary somehow.

It is insane. Anytime I put up fleries about illegal immigrants, they get pulled down. They always get put back up though.

It seems to me that they are trying to prepare for the legalization of the illegals. Normal population growth of any nationality does not increase that fast.