Enrollment at Missouri Southern is on the rise. According to a report released Sept. 11, the 20th day of the fall 2015 semester, overall student enrollment now sits at 5,783 students, a three percent increase. According to Brad Hodson, executive vice president, 925 of those students are freshmen, which reflects an increase of eight percent in freshmen enrollment and nearly the largest freshman class ever at Missouri Southern.

In addition to the growing freshman class, Southern saw a 12 percent increase in transfer students. A total of 652 transfer students are currently enrolled in classes, which is a record at Missouri Southern.

“We do see increase from some of our traditional transfer institutions, for example Crowder College, but also we’re seeing increased traffic from other four-year institutions,” said Hodson. “Students will go and try out maybe a larger institution or a private institution for a year, maybe just a semester, and then come to Missouri Southern.”

Finally, the number of international students attending classes at Southern grew to 217 students, which is also a record for Missouri Southern. These international students come from approximately 40 different countries.

“We’re actually going to be much more aggressive about [international marketing] in this academic year because we’ve passed a budget item that provided additional funds to market directly to international students through agencies in specific countries and also through social media, which is increasingly where they are looking for opportunities to study abroad,” said Hodson. “We expect to see increased enrollment in international students as we spend money to be more visible in those markets.”

The total number of credit hours students are enrolled in at Missouri Southern is 68,101, up nearly 2,000 credit hours this fall.

“Fall 2015 enrollment was very very positive for Missouri Southern,” said Hodson.