The State of Higher Education in Charlotte

[kermit]

UNCC classes (Both grad and undergrad) are now scheduled to be online only until October 1. Move in dates have been pushed back until the end of September.

https://ninernationcares.uncc.edu

ECU went all online this morning after reporting a crapton of cases (more than Chapel Hill I believe) yesterday.

Edited August 23, 2020 by kermit

[QCxpat]

Press Release - September 17, 2020 -  UNC System Announces Third Straight Year of Record Enrollment

"There are now 242,464 students enrolled across the UNC System — an increase of 1 percent compared to 2019’s enrollment of 239,981.  Undergraduate enrollment is up 0.2 percent, while graduate enrollment increased by 4 percent."

"Eight institutions all have record enrollments (Appalachian State University, Fayetteville State University, N.C. A&T State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte, UNC Pembroke, UNC Wilmington, and Western Carolina University).  Four institutions have enrolled their largest new transfer class ever (ECSU, NC State, UNC-Chapel Hill, and UNC Pembroke)."

Enrollment	Fall 2018	Fall 2019	Fall 2020	Difference Between 2019 and 2020
Appalachian State University	19,108	19,280	20,023	3.9%
East Carolina University	28,718	28,651	28,798	0.5%
Elizabeth City State University	1,677	1,769	2,002	13.2%
Fayetteville State University	6,318	6,551	6,726	2.7%
N.C. A&T State University	12,142	12,556	12,753	1.6%
North Carolina Central University	8,207	8,011	8,078	0.8%
North Carolina State University	35,479	36,304	36,042	-0.7%
UNC Asheville	3,762	3,600	3,363	-6.6%
UNC-Chapel Hill	30,011	29,877	30,092	0.7%
UNC Charlotte	29,710	29,615	30,164*	1.9%
UNC Greensboro	20,106	20,196	19,764	-2.1%
UNC Pembroke	7,137	7,698	8,262	7.3%
UNC Wilmington	16,747	17,499	17,915	2.4%
UNC School of the Arts	1,042	1,086	1,070	-1.5%
Western Carolina University	11,639	12,167	12,243	0.6%
Winston-Salem State University	5,190	5,121	5,169	0.9%
UNC System	236,993	239,981	242,464	1.0%
*UNC Charlotte’s Fall 2020 census data is not available yet, so its Fall 2020 beginning of term data is substituted as an estimate.				Bold text represents record enrollments.

Notable Milestones: 

• ECSU enrollment exceeds 2,000 students for the first time since 2013.
• Appalachian enrollment exceeds 20,000 students for the first time ever.
• UNC Charlotte enrollment exceeds 30,000 students for the first time ever.  That makes UNCC the second-largest institution in the state's public university system.

Link:  https://www.northcarolina.edu/news/unc-system-announces-third-straight-year-of-record-enrollment/

Edited September 23, 2020 by QCxpat

[KJHburg]

More on the Atrium Wake Forest med school here in Charlotte.  Biz Journal article below. 

""Wake Forest medical students will start rotations in Charlotte in March. The school received a record 11,000 applications this year, said Dr. Julie Ann Freischlag, CEO of Wake Forest Baptist Health and dean of the School of Medicine.""

sounds like plenty of students for the new Charlotte campus.  Wake Forest in Winston enrolled 1900 students in med school there.

Why the Atrium Health, Wake Forest combination made sense - Charlotte Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

[rancenc]

Kudos to the campus of Cabarrus  College of Health Sciences with record enrollment

https://independenttribune.com/news/education/cabarrus-college-of-health-sciences-achieves-record-enrollment/article_360ee346-5a5e-11eb-925c-a79f21c68ad2.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

[rancenc]

This campus may not be in the Charlotte area, but a lot of it's graduates do live here!

 

[tozmervo]

4 hours ago, rancenc said:

This campus may not be in the Charlotte area, but a lot of it's graduates do live here!

Boone is in the Charlotte media market, so it counts

[KJHburg]

story about UNC Charlotte school of data science.  My nephew is in this program, his girlfriend and my favorite waitress at Superica.  

Data science answers the call | Digital Features (uncc.edu)

[KJHburg]

Interesting now UNC Chapel Hill wants to explore a branch of their MBA program here in Charlotte.  That would join Wake Forest, UNC Charlotte, Wingate, USC, etc

Kenan-Flagler Business School hopes to enroll first Charlotte MBA class in October - Charlotte Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

KJ, UNC Charlotte MBA '96

[atl2clt]

1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

Interesting now UNC Chapel Hill wants to explore a branch of their MBA program here in Charlotte.  That would join Wake Forest, UNC Charlotte, Wingate, USC, etc

Kenan-Flagler Business School hopes to enroll first Charlotte MBA class in October - Charlotte Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

KJ, UNC Charlotte MBA '96

This is surprisingly huge news. Thank you for sharing. 

UNC's Kenan-Flagler is a perennial top 25 MBA program on a national scale. USNews ranks it as #20 (tied) and the Economist ranks it as #22. This is more than just a satellite program from a state school; this is one of the top business schools in the Southeast (along with Duke Fuqua,  UVA Darden, and Emory Goizueta) coming to Charlotte to plant its flag.  This is a clear indication of what some of the brightest minds in business/management academia think about this city and its potential for offering students gainful, six-figure employment and high-level connections. It seems that there is an insatiable need for business talent in Charlotte and UNC Kenan-Flagler recognizes that it wants to grow its footprint in this city sooner rather than later. Importantly, this will make the on-campus recruiting process more streamlined, as employers won't have to make the two-hour drive out to Chapel Hill just to sit through some interviews. 

The article notes that the MBA program could have as many as 75 students here in Charlotte. That's no small number—around 1/4 to 1/5 of the first-year MBA class. When grad students realize they can spend their semesters in Charlotte (rather than the undergrad paradise that is Chapel Hill), I expect that number to grow. 

[js4life]

Seems like UNC / WFU are making sure they tap into Charlotte's corporate wealth, Wake is already establishing a entire grad level division here, along with a med school. Wouldn't surprise me to see the Novant/UNC deal morph into a full school & both eventually establishing Law programs here

[Rufus]

11 hours ago, atl2clt said:

This is surprisingly huge news. Thank you for sharing. 

UNC's Kenan-Flagler is a perennial top 25 MBA program on a national scale. USNews ranks it as #20 (tied) and the Economist ranks it as #22. This is more than just a satellite program from a state school; this is one of the top business schools in the Southeast (along with Duke Fuqua,  UVA Darden, and Emory Goizueta) coming to Charlotte to plant its flag.  This is a clear indication of what some of the brightest minds in business/management academia think about this city and its potential for offering students gainful, six-figure employment and high-level connections. It seems that there is an insatiable need for business talent in Charlotte and UNC Kenan-Flagler recognizes that it wants to grow its footprint in this city sooner rather than later. Importantly, this will make the on-campus recruiting process more streamlined, as employers won't have to make the two-hour drive out to Chapel Hill just to sit through some interviews. 

The article notes that the MBA program could have as many as 75 students here in Charlotte. That's no small number—around 1/4 to 1/5 of the first-year MBA class. When grad students realize they can spend their semesters in Charlotte (rather than the undergrad paradise that is Chapel Hill), I expect that number to grow. 

This just feels like a continued slap in the face to UNC Charlotte. Belk is a great business school, and if the state really cared, they would pump money into that school rather than have UNC Chapel Hill stake their claim here. It's really unfortunate the the home city of the second largest university in the state refuses to pay it any mind, while allowing schools that are over a hundred miles away set up shop here. I am sure Kenan-Flagler is a great school...but why does it have to be UNCCH? Why can't UNC Charlotte get some of this attention. 

And don't come in and say that we should be proud that a school of the stature of UNCCH is wanting to set up shop here. What it's really doing is blocking the success of other schools. Cut us off at the knees so that UNCCH remains the flagship school that gets all the $$$. Academic stature is purely tied to the wealth of a university, and when you have state-supported universities all jostling for funds, it's the big players that get first dibs and leave everyone else to scrounge. And it's not fair.

UNC Charlotte should be fighting this to the bitter end. 

[js4life]

Charlotte has  a great business /MBA program & will still be the largest,most accessible & cost a whole lot less than Kenan/Flagler. But their is little doubt that their MBA graduates are in high demand by companies all across the nation.  

[CLT2014]

1 hour ago, Rufus said:

This just feels like a continued slap in the face to UNC Charlotte. Belk is a great business school, and if the state really cared, they would pump money into that school rather than have UNC Chapel Hill stake their claim here. It's really unfortunate the the home city of the second largest university in the state refuses to pay it any mind, while allowing schools that are over a hundred miles away set up shop here. I am sure Kenan-Flagler is a great school...but why does it have to be UNCCH? Why can't UNC Charlotte get some of this attention. 

And don't come in and say that we should be proud that a school of the stature of UNCCH is wanting to set up shop here. What it's really doing is blocking the success of other schools. Cut us off at the knees so that UNCCH remains the flagship school that gets all the $$$. Academic stature is purely tied to the wealth of a university, and when you have state-supported universities all jostling for funds, it's the big players that get first dibs and leave everyone else to scrounge. And it's not fair.

UNC Charlotte should be fighting this to the bitter end. 

I think there is plenty of room for UNC Chapel Hill to offer a full time MBA program in Charlotte and UNC Charlotte to continue to offer a part-time MBA program in Charlotte (where you stay in your job). Belk doesn't offer a full time program and I don't think it has plans to, so the Chapel Hill program offers a niche for people that plan to fully leave their existing job / quit et. and just do school. They can absolutely co-exist and I expect Belk to remain way bigger in Charlotte due to cost and people wanting to stay with their employer / continue working while doing school.

Due to the lack of full time MBA programs in Charlotte, many people that want a full time program have to move away from Charlotte. This provides an option for people to remain in Charlotte while they finish the program and network with employers here. A win-win for the city. More options isn't a bad thing.

Belk should be proud of the program they've built and honestly, they should be proud enough to know that students WILL continue to select the program due to its quality, cost, and part-time status. It doesn't need to be scared of Chapel Hill / have an inferiority complex. It can stand on its own two feet. 

Edited March 11, 2021 by CLT2014

[KJHburg]

from the daily Business NC email about Lowe's donation to UNC Charlotte

""$1.5 Million.  Amount Mooresville-based home-improvement chain Lowe's is donating to UNC Charlotte's College of Computing and Informatics. The money will be used to establish the Lowe's Endowed Chair in Computer Sciences and the Lowe's Technology Innovation Fund, which will provide $50,000 annually to support research in artificial intelligence and machine learning. The second-floor atrium in UNC Charlotte's Woodward Hall, which houses the college, will be named in Lowe's honor.

“We are actively hiring to build the best tech team in retail, and artificial intelligence and machine learning play increasingly important roles in how we serve customers and our associates,” said Seemantini Godbole, executive vice president and chief information officer at Lowe’s, in a release. The donation "highlights our mutual dedication to developing skilled technology professionals and improving the economic health of our hometown Charlotte region.”

UNC Charlotte has the state's largest computing college and it's among the largest in the nation. It graduates more computer science majors than any other university in the Carolinas and Virginia, and is the North Carolina's No. 1 producer of Black, Hispanic and female computer science graduates.""

any west coast technology company looking for an outpost needs to strong consider Charlotte and especially if they want a more diverse employment base.  

[tozmervo]

6 hours ago, KJHburg said:

UNC Charlotte has the state's largest computing college and it's among the largest in the nation. It graduates more computer science majors than any other university in the Carolinas and Virginia, and is the North Carolina's No. 1 producer of Black, Hispanic and female computer science graduates.""

Unless it's producing more black, Hispanic, and female graduates per capita of enrollment, that's just marketing spin for a population heat map.

[RugbyPike#11]

2 hours ago, tozmervo said:

Unless it's producing more black, Hispanic, and female graduates per capita of enrollment, that's just marketing spin for a population heat map.

Never realized before now how freaky Martha Stewart fans are. 

[videtur quam contuor]

In my graduate school time (before most of you were born) I had a class of Measurement and Statistics. I recall nearly nothing of it now except the example of wrongful deduction from data which had a graph of union membership in the U. S. overlaid with the incidence of (some) disease in India. Correlation? Causation? The data speaks, you decide.

 

Edited April 7, 2021 by tarhoosier

[KJHburg]

15th straight year! 

Edited April 19, 2021 by KJHburg

[KJHburg]

Just up the road from Charlotte the first private dental school in NC at High Point University!  NC is growing so much the need for doctors like at Wake Forest and their new Charlotte campus and this new dental school will fill the need for medical professionals in this state. 

""High Point University's transformational growth trajectory continued Wednesday with the announcement of a new graduate program that will bring a $150 million investment over five years.  HPU President Nido Qubein announced the School of Dental Medicine and Oral Health will be next addition to the university’s “innovation corridor.”  The new school, pending Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accreditation, will enroll its first class in fall 2023. At full capacity, the only dental school at a private university in North Carolina will bring 180 students to campus. The new building will be on International Avenue, housing the 10th academic school on the HPU campus and the seventh added since Qubein’s arrival in 2005.""

from the Triad Biz Journal

High Point University's newest program: a dental school | Education | greensboro.com

 

Edited May 6, 2021 by KJHburg

[rancenc]

Aerial view of Salisbury's Catawba College from about 1 year ago

 

[Desert Power]

CPCC receives $10M donation, largest individual gift in school’s history

Plans for the gift include:

 

- Establishing an endowment that provides resources to attract and retain outstanding arts and humanities faculty members.

- Creating a scholarship endowment to provide Opportunity Scholarships for students who are pursuing degrees in arts and humanities.

- Creating and launching an arts and humanities series which will bring renowned authors, artists, and performers to Central Piedmont for the benefit of students, faculty, staff and the greater Charlotte-Mecklenburg community.

- Establishing a public art fund, which will provide resources to commission public art for the enhancement of outdoor spaces at the college, enriching the lives of students, faculty, staff, and visitors on a daily basis.

- Enhancing instruction in the visual arts.

- Creating an endowment to support and expand instruction and learning in the arts and humanities at the college.

[Rufus]

Big happenings at UNC Charlotte today as they begin to brand themselves as just Charlotte. This is a similar approach to what Virginia Tech has done where their official name remains UNC Charlotte, but in most cases, it will be referred to as Charlotte. 

Also, big news on the academic front of the university as it has been approved for a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. PBK is the oldest, and most prestigious academic honor society, representing just 10% of all colleges & universities in the country. In North Carolina, UNC Chapel Hill, Duke, Davidson, Wake Forest, UNC Greensboro, NC State, and Elon have chapters. 

[KJHburg]

UNC Charlotte or whatever my alma mater is calling itself these days is the 2nd largest univerisity in the state behind only NC State.

Total enrollment Fall 2020 including grad students

NC State   36,042

UNCC  30,146

UNC-CH  30,092

ECU  28,798

App State 20,023

State and Chapel Hill still have the most graduate students by far roughly 10K a piece 

then UNC G and UNC Wilmington round out the top 7

[kermit]

Phil Dubois retired a year ago and the Provost (the chief academic officer) just announced her pending retirement this morning. This combination of retirements could facilitate a significant change of footing at UNCC. The new chancellor has made no secret of desiring to push UNCC to R1 status (equal research footing to Chapel Hill, NCSU etc). The new provost will almost certainly share that goal.

unfortunatley no one on campus is optimistic this evolution can happen. It will require huge budget infusions from the gop controlled system and legislature (faculty can’t conduct much world class research when they teach 6 classes a year). The system has also been unwilling to pay to retain research stars or to offer competitive graduate student stipends (the folks who would likely pick up the teaching slack).

In short, there is a will on the part of administration to improve the research output of UNCC, but if it’s gonna happen the political will to do it needs to be cultivated in Raleigh. I am not sure the current chancellor recognizes that yet.

 

[Blue_Devil]

7 minutes ago, kermit said:

Phil Dubois retired a year ago and the Provost (the chief academic officer) just announced her pending retirement this morning. This combination of retirements could facilitate a significant change of footing at UNCC. The new chancellor has made no secret of desiring to push UNCC to R1 status (equal research footing to Chapel Hill, NCSU etc). The new provost will almost certainly share that goal.

unfortunatley no one on campus is optimistic this evolution can happen. It will require huge budget infusions from the gop controlled system and legislature (faculty can’t conduct much world class research when they teach 6 classes a year). The system has also been unwilling to pay to retain research stars or to offer competitive graduate student stipends (the folks who would likely pick up the teaching slack).

In short, there is a will on the part of administration to improve the research output of UNCC, but if it’s gonna happen the political will to do it needs to be cultivated in Raleigh. I am not sure the current chancellor recognizes that yet.

 

With the new Atrium/Wake Forest Campus, I wonder if UNCC can partner with that somehow, or feed off that? The Innovation Campus will be bringing in a lot of Private research. Establishing a hub close by, maybe in Brooklyn Village could allow them to work with a lot of the companies who are likely to move in, even if they can't partner with Wake/Atrium.