Austin Peay reports rises in degrees and enrollment; committee reviews low‑producing programs

Austin Peay State University reported continued growth in degrees awarded and overall enrollment during the Academic Affairs Committee meeting on June 6, 2025, where trustees and university leaders reviewed program productivity and recruitment strategies.

The university awarded 2,890 degrees and certificates in the 2024–25 academic year — including summer, fall 2024 and spring 2025 terms — representing a 9% increase over the prior year, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Mitch Cordova said. Cordova also reported a fall census of 11,185 students, a 7.15% increase from the same time last year.

Those figures are tied to several academic and recruitment developments, Cordova told the committee. "I'm happy to share that for the 20 24, 20 25 academic year, Austin Peay State University awarded a total of 2,890 degrees and certificates...representing a 9% increase over the prior year," Cordova said. On enrollment, he said, "APSU boasted 11,185 students...This number represents a 7.15% increase over this time last year."

The committee also reviewed a program productivity report required by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC). Cordova and other presenters identified programs showing recent growth and several that remain on THEC's low‑producing list under the commission's reporting standards.

Growth highlights the provost noted include substantial gains in the College of Education, which nearly doubled undergraduate BS in education awards over five years and more than doubled master's awards in education. Cordova said the Doctor of Education (EdD) program is "thriving," noting he saw 12 students receive their EdD at commencement. He also cited the university's Master of Business Administration as one of the largest producing graduate programs and singled out the speech‑language pathology graduate program as a newer program now meeting strong market demand.

Programs identified as low producing or maturing were described as follows: the associate degree in professional service (which includes a culinary arts concentration) is showing enrollment growth and is expected to come off the low‑producing list in coming years; aviation science is a young program with few early graduates that should exit the five‑year average threshold as cohorts advance; the BS in national security studies has 49 majors and is expected to grow after a recent curriculum redesign; the BS in engineering physics (40 majors) and the BS in physics (31 majors) recently gained majors and are expected to yield more degrees over time. The public management major currently has 19 students and is showing signs of rebounding.

Cordova also detailed how many programs serve large numbers of nonmajors: he said philosophy and religion faculty supported about 17 sections serving over 300 students this semester, and world languages faculty taught nearly 700 students across 49 sections. On teacher preparation, he said special education remains low producing in awards but serves roughly a dozen majors and many nonmajors through required coursework; he added maintaining that program is not a financial burden on the university.

On recruitment and yield, Cordova credited a mix of targeted enrollment initiatives, scholarship packages and active outreach. He described an admitted‑student "roadshow" of yield events the university runs in multiple cities, combining financial aid counseling, alumni engagement and scholarship giveaways to improve conversion of admitted students to enrolled students. "Our typical yield of admitted students that turn into enrolled students is about 21 or 22 percent," Cordova said. "Students who participate in one of those roadshow events, the yield is 74, 75 percent long. So the bang for the buck is there." He also attributed growth to a Division of Military and Veterans Affairs created two years ago and cited a roughly 50% increase in military‑affiliated enrollment over the last four years.

Committee members asked about year‑to‑year variance in associate degree awards; a staff member, Kylie, explained a prior spike in associate degrees resulted from a targeted outreach in 2021–22 that allowed students already in pipeline to claim an associate credential on their way to a bachelor's degree. That outreach produced a temporary surge that subsequently normalized when that cohort passed through.

Cordova and presenters emphasized the university's expectation that many of the currently low‑producing programs will meet THEC thresholds as newer cohorts progress through redesigned curricula or as early cohorts complete degrees. Several programs were cited as "young" or recently redesigned and projected to increase awards in coming years.

Votes at a glance: The committee approved the minutes from the June 6, 2025 Academic Affairs Committee meeting and later voted to adjourn; both motions were moved and seconded on the record and carried by voice vote with ayes recorded, with no opposition noted in the transcript.

The meeting concluded after trustees and staff heard the reports and discussed recruitment and program productivity. Cordova thanked committee members and said he would be available to answer follow‑up questions.