CWU identifies many positive takeaways from fall enrollment report

The final fall 2025 enrollment numbers are in at Central Washington University, and the data reveal a number of positive signs in an increasingly challenging higher education landscape across the country.

Associate Vice President of Enrollment Management Hung Dang pointed to a series of encouraging data points that were contained in the 10-day census, delivered last week by the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, Research, and Planning (IERP):

• Central continues to provide access to higher education and career opportunities for Washington state residents, with 95% of our first-time-in-college (FTIC) students and 87% of transfer students coming from Washington. 
• 44% of incoming FTIC students and 53% of new transfer students are the first in their families to attend college.
• CWU’s retention rate for FTIC students improved by 3%, from 70% to 73%.
• Our total enrollment decline has leveled off at minus 2.3%, a significant improvement from its high of minus 9% in the fall of 2021.
• Central’s persistence rates have been steadily improving since the pandemic, with more CWU students returning from spring to fall this year than in any of the past four years.

While the overall enrollment of full-time students is down slightly, members of the CWU administration are encouraged to see that the rate of decline is showing signs of leveling off.

“When you dig down into the data, there are some very positive numbers,” Dang said. “What stands out to me is our persistence rate from spring to fall. We used to lose around 300 to 800 undergraduate students, and we lost nearly 300 as recently as last year. But this year, we only lost 93 students from spring to fall, which is less than 2%. That is a really good sign.”

Executive Director of IERP Jason Jones was equally upbeat about the persistence numbers and pointed to the success of CWU’s retention efforts over the past two years.

“The jump in fall-to-fall retention rates for our low-income students, as measured by being recipients of the Washington College Grant, increased from 67% to 74%,” Jones said. “That is higher than those who did not receive the need-based award for the first time in recent memory.”

Total enrollment for fall 2025 across all university programs and modalities — not including dual enrollment programs like College in the High School — came in at 8,309, a 2.3% drop from the fall 2024 head count of 8,509.

Dang noted that the enrollment decline CWU has experienced since 2021 appears to have stabilized relative to the past four years.

“Although Central has not fully recovered from the post-pandemic dip, the indicators suggest that the decline in enrollment is stabilizing,” he said. “When you look at last year at this time, we were down about 3.6% overall. And considering all of the challenges facing higher ed institutions in the state, we feel like we are still in pretty good shape.”

The number of FTIC students this fall is also down slightly from 2024, but a difference of 26 students is nominal in the world of enrollment management, Dang explained. Over the past four years, CWU has been hovering between 1,530-1,619 FTIC students per year, he added. Despite being slightly lower this fall, the current head count of 1,593 is in line with the 2021-24 academic years.

“A difference of 26 students is basically flat year-over-year,” Dang said. “Our overall FTIC number is lower, but it’s just a handful of students.”

When looking at the 10-day census in its entirety, the CWU administration is pleased with this year’s report in light of the growing number of adaptive challenges across the higher education landscape.

“Our vision is to provide access and opportunity for students who otherwise may not be able to go to college, and the data from this report show that we are doing exactly that,” Dang said. “By providing an affordable, quality education to students around the state, CWU is making a tremendous impact on the future of Washington communities and our overall economy.”

Enrollment report