Texas Tech University is seeing more students enrolled both on and off the campus.
Texas Tech University President Dr. Lawrence Schovanec said more students means better funding from the state.
“In the state of Texas, our formulative funding is based on how many student credit hours we teach, in order for us to retain our level of funding we actually need to grow,” Schovanec said.
Schovanec said he wants at least 7,000 more students enrolled by 2025. Right now, 38,000 students are enrolled at the university. By 2020, he said he wants to reach 40,000 students.
“During this legislative session we had about a 2 and a half percent increase in our student credit hours, but the statewide average was slightly over 3 percent,” Schovanec said.
In regards to online courses, Schovanec said in the last five years or so, Texas Tech has gone from about 50,000 student credit hours to close to 200,000. He said the university is always trying to recruit students.
“We’re disadvantaged because we don’t live in a highly populated area,” Schovanec said.
However, he said once a prospective student makes it to Lubbock and is able to tour the campus, he said they won’t regret becoming a Red Raider.
“If we can get a student to Lubbock and see this campus we pretty much get them, it’s a great community, there’s a special atmosphere here,” Schovanec said.
