THECB reports preliminary fall 2025 enrollment up about 4.7%; officials caution numbers are preliminary
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Summary
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s committee received preliminary fall 2025 headcount showing a statewide enrollment increase of roughly 4.7% (about 76,000 students) compared with the same snapshot in 2024; the board cautioned the data are preliminary and typically revise slightly when certified.
The Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Committee on Innovation, Data, and Educational Analytics received an informational presentation on preliminary fall 2025 enrollment numbers showing statewide increases across all institution sectors.
Melissa Humphreys, assistant commissioner for data management and research, told the committee that preliminary statewide enrollment increased by about 4.7%—nearly 76,000 students—compared with the same snapshot a year earlier. Humphreys said this is the first year all sectors have surpassed pre-pandemic (2019) enrollment levels and that total statewide enrollment is about 119,000 students higher than in 2019.
Highlights from the presentation: independent colleges and universities showed the largest year-over-year growth at 6.7%, followed by health-related institutions at 6.4%. Community and state colleges increased overall, while Texas State Technical Colleges saw a slight year-to-year decline but remain up substantially since 2019. Humphreys noted that measured increases likely reflect growth in dual-credit enrollments and workforce continuing-education enrollments.
Humphreys emphasized caveats: the figures are preliminary and the final certified data—collected with more student-level detail next month—typically runs about 2% lower than the preliminary snapshot. The preliminary collection supplies total headcounts only and does not break out undergraduates, graduates, dual-credit, or first-time-in-college counts; those details will appear in the certified data.
Committee members asked whether the THECB can estimate how many students might be affected by changes to residency or tuition rules; Humphreys said the preliminary collection does not capture detailed residency or immigration-status breakdowns and that institutions may hold that information internally. She said certified data will allow more detailed comparisons, including state/in-state versus out-of-state tuition status.
Regional variation: Humphreys noted all regions saw increases; the Northwest and Upper East regions posted the largest preliminary increases (more than 9%).
Action: The item was informational; no committee action was required.
