Record Enrollment Continues Despite Pandemic
02/18/2021
Contacts for media: Christine Gillette, 978-758-4664, Christine_Gillette@uml.edu and Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944, Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu
LOWELL, Mass. – UMass Lowell recently welcomed back its more than 18,000 students for the spring semester.
Despite the effect of the pandemic seen across higher education, UMass Lowell enrolled more than 11,400 undergraduate, 4,500 graduate and 2,400 continuing education students for spring 2021.
Enrollment for spring is up compared to this time last year and the residential student population has increased by 50 percent over fall numbers to 1,100 students. UMass Lowell has more than doubled the number of in-person or hybrid offerings this spring, enabling more of our faculty and students to connect through a more traditional classroom experience. As a result, the university ramped up its COVID-19 surveillance testing program to enable every student and employee working, learning or living on campus to get tested weekly.
UMass Lowell has expanded its COVID-19 surveillance (asymptomatic) testing to more students, as well as faculty and staff working with students in person. In total, the university ended up with a 0.47 percent positivity rate out of more than 19,000 tests from August through December – a fraction of Greater Lowell’s numbers.
“The expansion of on-campus operations was made possible by the successes of last semester. The efforts of our entire campus community made fall 2020 as safe and productive as possible in the midst of this public health crisis,” said UMass Lowell Chancellor Jacquie Moloney.
As the weather gets warmer, UMass Lowell hopes to increase campus activities – including spring and previously postponed fall sports – while adhering to state and federal public health guidelines. The university expects to return with a full schedule of on-campus courses and student activities in the fall 2021 semester.
UMass Lowell is a national research university offering its more than 18,000 students bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in business, education, engineering, fine arts, health, humanities, sciences and social sciences. UMass Lowell delivers high-quality educational programs and personal attention from leading faculty and staff, all of which prepare graduates to be leaders in their communities and around the globe. www.uml.edu