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GOAL 1

TEACHING, LEARNING AND THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE

INITIATIVE 1

Implement a comprehensive enrollment strategy that broadens access.

Initiative 1

In 2020, UTEP began the development of a comprehensive undergraduate and graduate enrollment plan, implementing strategies and activities that will enable the University to enroll more students and confer more degrees over the next 10 years.

UTEP has a deep commitment to, and an outstanding record in, local and regional outreach. We will continue to strengthen recruitment in our primary Region 19 market, maintaining our primary commitment to educate the community in which we are located. Strengthening our partnerships in the region, we will encourage dual credit and early college high schools, and smooth the pathway to a bachelor’s degree for transfer students. We will seek to expand enrollment from populations within our region that we are currently underserving, in particular, Fort Bliss.

As we move to the next decade, the number of high school graduates in our region will plateau, while the population of Texas as a whole will increase. To continue to serve the needs of the state and region, we will expand our primary recruitment market beyond Region 19 to an area that would be more consistent with the size of our University. In doing so, we will emphasize themes that resonate based on market research, likely including access to excellent education; our unique binational, bicultural region; our good value; community-engaged education; and the strength of particular academic programs.

We will develop specific messages for both the current Region 19 market and the expanded primary market through market research and a comprehensive marketing plan. Our location, culture, academic programs, and emerging partnerships give us an advantage to attract students from areas of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico.

As we solidify our expanded primary market, we will prioritize target secondary markets including Arizona and Southern California, as well as other Texas cities, with particular focus on our high-demand undergraduate and graduate programs. We will emphasize our differentiating characteristics, including our success in supporting underrepresented students, high academic quality, affordable tuition, and community-engaged education.

UTEP has a deep commitment to, and an outstanding record in, local and regional outreach.”

Because only a small percentage of UTEP students have historically lived on campus, we have a unique opportunity to create a small and high-quality on-campus living and learning environment for our students without forgoing the benefits of a large research university. UTEP will develop and implement a plan to enhance the on-campus living experience as we expand our primary market outside of El Paso.

We will keep college affordable by controlling costs while enhancing access to financial aid. We will prioritize development of scholarships of all kinds for incoming and persisting students and make systemic improvements to the scholarship awarding process.