EUGENE — The share of in-state residents served by Oregon’s largest universities has dropped dramatically over the past two decades. This fall, Oregonians barely outnumbered out-of-state and international students at both the University of Oregon and Oregon State University.

The vast majority of enrollment growth at the state’s two largest public universities in the last 25 years has been driven by an increase in out-of-state and international students. The total number of in-state residents enrolled at the two schools has grown too, but at a much smaller clip, and nearly all of that growth is at Oregon State.

The 17,877 Oregon residents at Oregon State this year make up 50.2% of students enrolled at the state’s largest university. That’s way down from the 78% in-state students in 2000, though the total number of Oregon students enrolled is up by nearly 5,000.

The University of Oregon counted some 12,237 resident students in fall 2023, representing 51.3% of the university’s overall enrollment. That share is down from the 68% of in-state students who attended the university in 2000, though the number is nearly identical.

Administrators at both universities say they’re committed to serving Oregon students and that the share of in-state students they admit is complicated by a decline in community college transfers, enrollment in online programs and student interest. Both universities accepted about 9 of every 10 Oregonians who applied this year, enrollment managers said.

“If you’re a qualified resident, there’s room for you here. We are not taking non-resident students at the expense of a resident,” said Jon Boeckenstedt, vice provost for enrollment management at Oregon State.

With a combined enrollment of more than 60,000, the University of Oregon and Oregon State enroll the bulk of Oregon’s 98,545 undergraduate students and advanced degree seekers.

Despite serving a declining share of Oregon residents over time, the state’s two major universities continue to buck statewide enrollment trends that resulted from the pandemic.

Since 2019, Oregon State and the University of Oregon have increased the raw number of Oregon residents they serve.

Statewide, things have gone in a different direction. The number of Oregon residents enrolled at the state’s seven public universities has dropped by 3,299 students since 2019, according to the Higher Education Coordinating Commission, mirroring a two percentage point decline in overall enrollment. Without enrollment growth at the two largest universities, that drop would have been steeper.

Across the state, about 62.7% of all students enrolled at Oregon public universities are in-state residents this year.

Oregon State says online enrollment skews ratios

A huge chunk of out-of-state student enrollment at Oregon State University is driven by the school’s online programs, which began picking up steam around 2005, Boeckenstedt said.

There are nearly 11,000 students enrolled in those online programs today, 75% of whom live outside Oregon. Those 8,100 students pay the same online tuition as Oregon residents and don’t come to campus, Boeckenstedt said, so they’re not creating capacity issues in Corvallis.

The ratio on campus goes the opposite way, Boeckenstedt said. Of the more than 20,000 undergraduates on the Corvallis campus, only about a third are non-residents, he said.

Residents are the first priority when Oregon State admits its freshman class, Boeckenstedt said. The university enrolls Oregonians first, then fills the rest of its available slots with out-of-state students. Last year’s first-year class was about 60% residents, he said.

Oregon State admitted 84% of traditional first-year applicants in the fall of 2023 and closer to 90% of in-state applicants, he said.

Over time, as it has grown in size, Oregon State has also become the predominant educator of in-state students of the two largest universities. In 2000, OSU served about 52% of Oregon students enrolled in Corvallis or Eugene. Today, Oregon State serves more than 59% of them.

“We educate more residents, more nonresidents and more international students than any other campus in the state,” Boeckenstedt said. “Not only are we serving the largest share of residents, we’re also an engine bringing revenue into Oregon from beyond the borders.”

University of Oregon wants more Oregonians

The University of Oregon enrolled 2,509 Oregonians in this year’s freshman class. That’s a record, the school says, though they represent just 49.6% of the 5,057 student first-year group.

There’s both an optimist’s view of that number, says Vice President of Enrollment Management Roger Thompson, and a pessimistic one.

On the bright side, not only was the volume of in-state students in the first-year class higher than ever, the diversity of that cohort set records too. About 38% identify as students of color.

The bad news is this: Oregon fielded more than 7,000 applications from state residents this year and admission rates for in-state students approach 90%, Thompson said. That means the majority of Oregon students admitted to the University of Oregon decided not to enroll.

“That’s the challenge we deal with pretty much every day in our organization: How can we convert more of those admitted students into enrolling?” Thompson said.

For the better part of two decades, the University of Oregon’s in-state enrollment has fluctuated around 13,000 students. But the share of Oregon students enrolled dropped consistently into the low 50% range by 2013. Last year, in-state enrollment dipped to 49.9% – the first time in recent history that it enrolled more out-of-state or international students than Oregonians. But this year it’s back to 51.3%.

As the share of Oregon students has dropped over the decades, California’s slice has grown dramatically. Californians accounted for about 8% of all University of Oregon students in 2000 but are now about 25%.

Thompson points to a number of factors altering UO’s mix of students.

As community college enrollment has declined over time, UO is receiving at least 1,000 fewer in-state transfer students a year than it has in the past, he said. Former president Michael Schill drove the university to reduce the time it took students to graduate from four years and two terms down to four years, Thompson said. That change, which financially benefits students, has decreased enrollment somewhat because fewer students are spending extra semesters on campus, he said.

In addition, Oregon’s high school graduating classes are getting smaller, which means the University of Oregon needs to increase the market share of those students it attracts. (College-going rates among those graduates have also declined pretty dramatically for Oregon students over the past decade.)

The University of Oregon’s data suggests that residents admitted to campus who decide not to attend typically enroll at an out-of-state school that’s giving them good financial aid, Thompson said.

The University of Oregon is the most expensive public university for Oregon students, with an estimated price tag of $35,721 per year before financial aid, about $3,200 more expensive than OSU. That cost includes tuition, books, lodging, meals and personal expenses.

Thompson argues that UO may be more affordable than other colleges if students finish their degrees more quickly. And he said the university offers in-house scholarships, like PathwayOregon, which covers tuition and fees for low-income Pell Grant recipients.

Now the university needs to do a better job of selling that story, he said.

“We’re here to serve the state of Oregon and I wish more Oregon kids chose us,” he said.