The State Board of Regents says a record number of students enrolled in Iowa’s three public universities this spring. Regents spokesperson Barb Boose (sounds like moose) says an all-time semester high of 67-thousand-40 students took classes at Northern Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Iowa, an increase of just under one percent from spring 2002.She says they saw a big increase in off-campus courses over the internet, Iowa Communications Network (ICN), and correspondence courses. Boose says off-campus students increase just over 17-percent as more people took advantage of the convenience.She says it’s easier for people to go to an ICN site rather than drive to Ames, Cedar Falls or Iowa City, and she says as the economy softened, more people looked to improve their education to find a new job. The University of Iowa was the only school to see an increase in undergraduate enrollment in the spring, but Boose says the drop at UNI and ISU wasn’t something to worry about. She says they showed a slight drop, but still had the second highest spring enrollment ever. The university presidents have warned that continued tuition increases would make education unaffordable, and Boose says that’s something they’ll have to watch. She says students obviously think state supported education is still a good value, and they want to keep it that way. Graduate student enrollment rose at all three universities to 11-thousand-374 students, up two-point-seven percent from last spring.
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