Little Rock – Student enrollment continues to grow at most colleges and universities throughout the state. Retention and graduation rates are also continuing to rise. The University of Arkansas Systems total Fall 2025 headcount was 71,705 students, an increase of 2,000 students from last fall.
Key figures include record enrollments at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville with over 34,000 students and Arkansas State University with almost 18,000 students enrolled. Arkansas Community Colleges also saw overall increases in enrollment, with the University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton showing a 23 percent jump.
This is the fifth consecutive year, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville has set an overall enrollment record with 34,175 students for the Fall 2025 semester. The highest enrollment in the university’s history.
Arkansas State University is celebrating a record-breaking student body this fall with 11th-day enrollment count surging to 17,926. Fueled by the largest freshman class ever with 2,222 first-year students, a 12 percent increase compared to last year.
Arkansas Tech University recorded an 8 percent increase in total enrollment this fall with a 13 percent increase in transfer students and 6 percent increase in graduate students.
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences had a 6.4 percent increase in enrollment for Fall 2025.
This fall, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock had a minor increase in overall enrollment with approximately 7,011 students, after achieving their largest increase in enrollment in 20 years in Fall 2024. Freshman enrollment saw a sizable gain with a 33.3 percent increase from Fall 2024.
Henderson State University’s Fall 2025 enrollment was 2,258 students, a 9 percent increase from the previous year. This includes 572 first-time freshmen, a 46 percent increase, plus 196 transfer students, a 32 percent increase.
University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, the system’s only historically black college, had a slight decline from Fall 2024 enrollment, although graduate student enrollment increased by 4 percent over last year. Furthermore, the university was recently awarded a $2 million grant from the Thurgood Marshall College Fund to launch PRIDE RISES — Prioritizing Recruitment to Innovate and Drive Enrollment for improvements.
Notable increases at public two-year colleges grew from Fall 2024 with UA-East Arkansas Community College, Forest City saw a record-breaking enrollment of 1,566 students for Fall 2025, a 11.2 percent increase over the previous year. This is a new high for the college, which had 1,399 students in Fall 2024. North Arkansas College in Harrison saw a 4.9 percent increase in its student headcount to 2,190 for the fall 2025 semester, up from 2,087 the previous year. For the third consecutive year, UA Hope-Texarkana had a fall-to-fall enrollment increase which climbed by 7.7 percent. Black River Technical College, Pocahontas saw a 1 percent drop in Fall 2025 enrollment, although they welcomed 253 first-time freshmen and had a 12.6 percent increase in Career and Technical Center enrollment. Southeast Arkansas College in Pine Bluff had a decrease by 1 student and ASU Three Rivers in Malvern saw a slight decrease of 1.6 percent from the previous year.
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