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Full time students at NMC increase
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Posted on Jan 19 2001
Initial registration figures point to an increase in the Northern Marianas College’s full time students, by far the highest number the college has recorded since it started offering postsecondary courses in 1981.
NMC Director Tony Deleon Guerrero attributes this increase to the Scholarship Office’s decision to terminate granting financial aids to non-full time students.
According to NMC Records and Admissions statistics as of January 17, the total student head count was 761 for the current Spring semester. The initial records show that around 90 percent of the registrants enrolled as full-time students.
The improvement of NMC’s student population is also assessed by college officials as a reaction to the high costs of off-island college education. Most parents now appear to confine their children’s first two years of postsecondary education on island.
Mr. Guerrero reiterated that the sudden surge in the number of full-time student enrollment could be due to the lack of financial aides accorded to part-time students.
With Spring 2001 registration still on, the college recorded a total of 691 FTEs, significantly higher than the past semester’s number of full time students.
At the end of the ongoing late registration, the college anticipates to admit approximately 900 students, part time and full time.
As of Jan. 17, the Admissions and Records Office has noted that newly-registered students have signed up for a total of 8,290 college credits.
“I believe that the general community now is more aware about the accreditation status of the college. We are gaining more public confidence as a post secondary institution,” said Mr. Guerrero in an earlier interview.
NMC’s institutional development arm has devised of ways to promote the college’s programs to reach a varied range of audiences using all forms of media available on island: newspapers, television, radio, and circulated flyers. (MM)
