Record enrollment and new academic proposals.

The second semester of the current academic year of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM) began with a record number of 12,831 students enrolled, a figure never before reached during a second semester at this institution.

The students are distributed in the various colleges, but the College of Arts and Sciences includes a quantity of more than 5,000: followed by Engineering with a little less than 5,000; Business Administration with close to 1,500 and Agricultural Sciences with almost 1,100. This historic figure, which by the end of this article reached 12,831 students enrolled, also includes students from the Division of Continuing Education and Professional Studies, students coming from high schools, exchange students, and graduate students.

As explained by the Auxiliary Dean of Academic Affairs and person in charge of the enrollment process, doctor Raúl Zapata, the first semester of this academic year also broke previous records of enrollment with more than 13,326 students, which converted into the semester with the most students enrolled in the history of UPRM.

At the time of this article, over 67,500 seats had been occupied in the different courses. This constitutes 93 percent of the total number of seats offered which was close to 73,400. The occupation is the availability of seats for each course offered.

According to doctor Zapata, online payment also reached a historical number, for the first time since this service has been offered more than 50 percent of the students made their payments electronically.

“Our ideal is that it reaches 100 percent, but little by little, because not everyone has a debit or credit card. It’s something that we have to improve gradually and it’s the first time that we reached 50 percent or more,” he sustained.

Enrollment began last December while classes began January 14, 2009.
On the other hand, the interim chancellor and dean of Academic Affairs, doctor Mildred Chaparro, reported that the actual semester has another distinctive feature: six new proposals to be included in future academic offerings at UPRM.

Among the proposals, four are at the graduate level and two at the undergraduate level. Those that are part of the Graduate School are doctorate degrees in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, and master’s degrees in Material Sciences and Applied Statistics. Meanwhile, the new bachelor’s degree proposals are in Computer Sciences and Software Engineering.

The Interim Chancellor was optimistic that these new programs will pass the UPRM Council and the Board of Trustees of the University of Puerto Rico during this semester to be finalized. Then, they will be submitted to the Puerto Rico’s Council on Higher Education (CES, by its Spanish Acronym), which is the final body of approval.

One that has already been approved by the CES is the master’s program in Kinesiology, which could be offered as soon as next August.

“I hope that we can begin offering the program in August so that graduate students can enroll and attract an unlimited number of students that are interested in this discipline,” stated Chaparro.

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More than 12,800 students enrolled this semester at UPRM.

This was a record number for the second semester in an academic year at UPRM.

Photos by Alessandra Otero / UPRM Press

The actual semester counts six new proposals to be included en future academic offerings at UPRM.		More than 50 percent of the students made their payments electronically.

Photos by Carlos Díaz / UPRM Press