Enrollment and Online Education

Sent: October 16, 2026

From: Vincent J. Del Casino, Jr., Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

Dear Colleagues,

As we enter the middle of the semester, I wanted to share some updates with you and provide an opportunity for everyone to be a part of some of the “next step thinking” related to our enrollment strategy. 

The Overall Enrollment Picture

This fall, SJSU’s enrollment climbed slightly. We remain over 40,000 students by headcount. At the same time, graduate student enrollment declined by about 4-5%, while our undergraduate enrollment increased, particularly in SJSU Online, which has grown over 22% by headcount since last fall. Strong retention numbers further support our overall enrollment picture. However, we did witness a slight decline in the first-year full-time student retention from last year—partially, I suspect, a result of a very large F’25 entering class. Despite the decline in overall graduate student headcount, increases in average unit load for those students mean we remain very strong in overall Full-Time Equivalent Students (FTES). 

These enrollment changes are not completely unexpected, as international student numbers continue to be challenged by larger structural forces impacting our graduate programs and our undergraduate reputation is bolstered by the outstanding work of our faculty, staff, and students thereby attracting new students to SJSU. Access to increased housing has also helped us recruit more students from outside the Santa Clara County region; our out-of-state undergraduate student population on the main campus grew from 358 students in F’25 to 481 students in F’26. At the same time, we tightened the first-year enrollment numbers slightly, bringing the cohort size to 4,600 while implementing the Annual First Year Scheduling Success (AFYSS) Program, which helped increase the average unit load (AUL) for incoming students this year and reduced the number of students who are starting at SJSU as part-time students. Between main campus and SJSU Online, we added an additional 3,800 transfer students this fall while projecting another 1,500 will join us in January as well. New graduate students came in at around 3,000 this fall while we anticipate an additional 1,450 in spring. 

Demographically, there have been some changes over time. The percentage of undergraduate students on the main campus who are under 24 is now 87% compared to 80% in 2016. The average age for an undergraduate on campus is 22. Compare this demographic with SJSU Online and you see we are serving a very different community. The average age of a SJSU Online undergraduate student is 32 (the same average age as our graduate students). In addition, SJSU Online students are more likely to be first-generation (58% v. 36% main campus) and Pell eligible (55% v. 35% on main campus). Three years into the launch of SJSU Online it is clear that we have expanded access to our campus while serving a broader community of new learners. 

Expanding Access to SJSU Online

SJSU Online is currently an upper division transfer only program serving students who have completed 60 units or more at a community college or other four year university. Over the last two years, we have received a growing amount of interest from prospective students who want Lower Division transfer opportunities. The average online undergraduate student entering a bachelor’s program, nationally, has about 40-45 completed units across multiple institutions. We have supported these students by directing them to local community colleges where they can become upper division eligible. But many prospective students continue to tell us they are ready to join SJSU today. We are thus exploring the possibility of expanding access to lower division transfer students (those with approximately one year of college education completed). 

This moment presents an ideal time to expand access to SJSU. We have an amazing and growing number of academic programs available to students. Several programs are now admitting students five times a year. I believe it is our mission to help more students also complete their undergraduate degree and do so with the amazing SJSU faculty who are delivering our programs and the incredible staff that are helping our students succeed. The data show, in fact, that SJSU has done extremely well in supporting SJSU Online students, with more than 50% of them completing their degree in two years or less. This may be the right step forward, but I want to provide space for conversation before we take the leap.

Join the Conversation!

If you are interested in being part of this conversation, I invite you to sign up on Thursday, November 5 from noon - 1:00 p.m. for a drop-in hour with Randall Fullington, our Vice Provost for Academic Innovation, and me. We will talk about the opportunity and the challenges of expanding access beyond the upper division transfer population. I look forward to the discussion. If you can’t make the event, but you have thoughts about this possible transition, please feel free to send comments to provost@sjsu.edu, and we will collate and review those as part of our decision-making process. 

Sincerely,

Vin