Southern Utah University Leads University Growth In The State

Thursday, the Utah System of Higher Education released the latest enrollment numbers and Southern Utah University once again leads the state’s colleges and universities in percentage growth from the previous year.

SUU enrollment increased by 7.7 percent over the fall of 2017.  The Cedar City school has seen an increase in student numbers of over 34 percent over the last four years.  Nevertheless, growth, in and of itself is not the objective, says university president Dr. Scott L. Wyatt.

“If you go look at our business building, what you'll see is the brand new business building we just opened, you'll see that the classrooms are small," he said. "It's not that we are trying to build large auditoriums, we're doing everything we can to maintain that small, intimate environment for faculty to mentor students and students to have great relationships with other students.”

Aside from growth, SUU is also holding on to more of its students.  In just two years, its rate of retention has gone from 64 percent to 71 percent.