Champaign, Ill. – The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign welcomed its largest cohort of incoming graduate students to date, with 7,425 new graduate students for fall 2024. This marks an 18% rise in new enrollments compared to the previous year.

The number of graduate students has grown sharply over the past decade and contributes significantly to the overall growth in student enrollment at Illinois. Of the 59,238 students currently enrolled, 20,765 are graduate students, which is 35% of the student population.
Much of the growth in graduate education over the past few years has occurred in master’s programs, particularly those offered online. This year, new enrollments for doctoral and master’s programs each rose by 19%. Graduate enrollment is expected to rise further throughout the semester, as many online master’s programs start in the second half of the fall term.

"Illinois provides a diverse array of educational pathways for people who want to continue their education," said Provost John Coleman. "Our traditional doctoral programs drive the university’s pathbreaking research and scholarship and cultivate the next generation of thought leaders and innovators. Our state-of- the-art professional master’s degrees, fully online programs, and certificates address the evolving needs of contemporary learners. The steady growth in our graduate enrollments testifies to the success of this multifaceted approach to graduate education in providing increased opportunity for learners in Illinois, across the nation and around the world."

Illinois now enrolls 41% of its graduate students in online programs. Certificate programs, which started in fall 2022, have seen a 55% increase in their third year. Overall, 65.5% of graduate students are in master's programs, 30.5% in doctoral programs, and 4% in certificate and non-degree programs.

The continued growth in online master’s degree and certificate students brings an Illinois education to an entirely new cohort of learners. Brooke Elliott, dean of the Gies College of Business says, “Our partnership with a mission-aligned organization in Coursera has allowed us to deliver affordable, quality education to learners all around the world.  We have impacted and transformed lives in ways we never thought imaginable.”

This year, Illinois also has increased enrollment of doctoral degree seekers, particularly in engineering, health, and information science programs. According to Rashid Bashir, dean of the Grainger College of Engineering, increasing doctoral enrollments is a key component of Grainger’s strategy to grow the impact of their research agenda across the college. “Graduate students are critical to sustaining and growing our research excellence – and to make the impact that we aspire to make and that is expected of us – to change the world for the better and improve the human condition,” said Bashir.

“In addition to the increase in graduate students, we are delighted to see continued growth in the diversity of our graduate community,” said Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko, dean of the Graduate College. New enrollments from underrepresented groups have risen by 19%. Notably, there is a 25% rise in new Hispanic student enrollments and a 13% increase in new African American student enrollments. Sixteen percent of new graduate students report themselves as first generation, and the percentage is greater for doctoral students, 19%. International graduate students come from over 123 countries and constitute 42% of the total graduate enrollment, contributing a wide array of global perspectives.

When asked to comment on the growth in diverse and non-traditional learners that the Graduate College has witnessed over the past few years, Elizabeth Spark, assistant dean for Admissions and Enrollment, noted that “in addition to broadening the range of opportunities we offer, we are increasingly adopting holistic admissions practices that help us to identify, recruit and admit a more diverse and talented cohort students than ever before.”