HOUSTON (Aug. 27, 07) –The fall 2007 college semester has begun with a record enrollment at the five colleges of the Lone Star College System.
With registration not yet completed, opening day figures showed the district with 46,526 students, compared with 43,203 on opening day a year ago. The increase translates to a 7.7% jump over the same day in 2006.
Leading the enrollment surge is Lone Star College–CyFair, with a 16.6% increase to 11,706 students. Lone Star College-Kingwood showed a 8.1% increase to 7,712; Lone Star College–Montgomery grew 6.6% to 8,515; Lone Star College-North Harris improved by 1.1% to 10,343; and Lone Star College–Tomball grew by 5.6% to 8,250.
Contact hours increased significantly, as well. A contact hour is the time students spend in a credit class during a semester. Overall contact hours increased by 470,884 for fall, or 7.0%.
To accommodate its burgeoning enrollment, Lone Star College System colleges are increasing the size of classes, scheduling more afternoon, evening and weekend classes, and opening temporary buildings. The average class size increased on all colleges but one.
The area with the greatest increase in sections and course enrollments is math, which increased from 16,998 to 18,593 students. English enrollment increased from 19,732 to 20,668.
In the health areas, nursing enrollments increased from 2,169 to 2,541 across the colleges.
Official enrollment will be reported after the twelfth day of classes.
Lone Star College System is the third largest community college in Texas behind Dallas County Community College District and Alamo Community College District in San Antonio.
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