The St. Thomas graduate programs as a whole are at their lowest enrollment since 1994, following with a national trend of falling numbers in continuing education.

The university’s 2013 fall census showed the graduate programs are down by about 100 students since last year.

Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness Michael Cogan said he sees the decrease in enrollment as an issue graduate programs are facing across the nation. He said about 50 percent of St. Thomas graduate programs have seen enrollment decreases over the past 10 years.

“We’ve had a couple of things happen: (the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) created a situation where we spent a little bit more effort on our full-time MBA, and we have been losing the evening MBA, which was traditionally where we had a lot of enrollments,” Cogan said.

Multiple factors contributed to the lower enrollment numbers, Cogan said. The job market has made certain occupations more difficult to secure, he said, and employers are no longer reimbursing their employees to advance their education to a graduate level.

Junior Elizabeth Miner believes graduate school cost is another contributing factor to lower enrollment.

“You can’t afford to pay your student loans from your undergrad while you are in graduate school, so it’s not fiscally viable for most kids who would really like to expand their education,” Miner said. “There is a lot of pressure to find a way to pay off their student loans, so students are putting off the education that they want in sort of a frantic state of mind.”

Senior Sarah Strain plans to attend graduate school because of the opportunities it will open for her as a double major in sociology and psychology.

“I know that grad school is not for everyone. It has to be something that you are personally dedicated to and would be beneficial for your career,” Strain said.

Enrollment drops do not apply to all of St. Thomas’ graduate programs. Cogan said the engineering and software programs have increased enrollment.

Dean of the School of Engineering Don Weinkauf said he believes the implementation of targeted marketing and an environment that values technology and software are primary drivers for the increased enrollment in Engineering and Software programs.

Despite the lower number of students in some St. Thomas graduate programs, Cogan said “enrollment is right where we need it to be.”

“We know that the graduate program is down a bit, and we also know that the undergraduate enrollment is doing very very well,” Cogan said. “We’re happy with our retention rates. We’re happy with our graduation rates, and things are working out with that.”

The drop in enrollment is not deterring senior Shehan Perera from her plans to attend graduate school at St. Thomas.

“I love the program here, especially the engineering program. I love the professors,” Perera said. “They are very keen on individuals students, their progress and their abilities and pushing that to the maximum.”

Johnnay Leenay can be reached at leen1980@stthomas.edu.