Ivy Tech Community College had nearly 120,000 students enrolled for the first day of classes, which began on Monday. The 119,597 enrolled students is four percent more than enrollment counts on the first day last Spring.

“I want to thank all of our chancellors across the state. They continue to focus on making college accessible and possible for more and more students despite our funding challenges,” Ivy Tech President Thomas J. Snyder said. “We continue to reengineer the College and redeploy resources to ensure that we are able to accommodate our increased student enrollment.”

The college saw large gains in the number of students with previous college experience coming back to school and enrolling at Ivy Tech for the first time. A total of 5,465 students with prior college experience enrolled for the first time this Spring term, an increase of 24 percent over last Spring term. In total the college enrolled 17,621 new students to the college.

Ivy Tech is also experiencing gains in the number of guest students taking classes at Ivy Tech with a total of 2,368 students, an increase of 59 percent over last Spring term. A guest student is a student enrolled at another college or university taking classes at Ivy Tech.

Nearly 82,000 students enrolled are returning students from the prior term as retention efforts continue to be a focus at the College.

“We are pleased to see so many students continuing their educational journey with the community college. Our student body is a complex one. We continue to look for ways to provide the educational and training needs for our students without always receiving the appropriate funding for the teaching and training that we deliver,” Snyder said.

Since 2005, Ivy Tech has seen Spring enrollment jump from 65,678 to today’s total of 119,597, an 82 percent increase.