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By Rachel Sterzer Gibson, Church News
The number of students who get to participate in a Brigham Young University–Idaho education continues to grow.
Recently released numbers for the fall 2024 semester show a total enrollment of 24,111 campus-based students, roughly 3,500 more students or a 3.4% increase over enrollment last fall.
The increase in on-campus students is attributed in part to the largest incoming class in the school’s history.
More than 8,000 students participated in the new student orientation this fall, BYU–Idaho’s newsroom reported on October 11. That number is an increase of four times the number of students involved for fall 2023.
In addition to the close to 24,000 students in Rexburg, BYU-Idaho — a private university sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — are 21,473 online students who are serviced in partnership with BYU-Pathway Worldwide, leading to a total of 45,584 enrolled students this fall.
“The exciting growth is a product of an increased understanding across the Church of how remarkable a BYU–Idaho education is,” BYU–Idaho President Alvin F. Meredith III told the Church News.
President Meredith highlighted three things that make a BYU–Idaho education “remarkable:”
First, “This university offers a high-quality, affordable education that provides our graduates with high job placement and strong starting salaries.”
Second, BYU–Idaho’s faculty “is uniquely student-focused and prioritizes teaching and advising students above everything else.”
Third and “most importantly,” the growth in enrollment “is a testament to our unwavering commitment to our mission of building disciples of Jesus Christ who are leaders in their homes, the Church and their communities. We are devoted to remaining on that steady, upward course,” President Meredith said.
bangerter-confidence-byu-idaho-2.jpg
BYU–Idaho students gather at the I-Center in Rexburg, Idaho, to listen to a devotional by Elder Steven R. Bangerter, a General Authority Seventy, and his wife, Sister Susan A. Bangerter, on Saturday, September 21, 2024. Photo by Lauren Bushman, BYU–Idaho, courtesy of Church News.All rights reserved.In 2022, Elder Clark G. Gilbert, a General Authority Seventy and the Church commissioner of education, reported that since its transformation from a two-year college to a four-year university, BYU–Idaho’s enrollment has grown to roughly 90%-plus of BYU’s.
And while growing from about 14,000 students in 2001 to the 45,000 this fall, the cost to the Church has not gone up above inflationary increases.
How has BYU–Idaho been able to provide quality experience to more students without increasing the cost to the Church? Through several innovations unique to BYU–Idaho: the three-track system that allows for the efficient use of space; online curriculum delivery, with about 25% delivered online; the focus on undergraduate degrees with no research or graduate degrees; the lack of intercollegiate sports programs; and faculty who have just one job — to teach.
One of BYU–Idaho’s hallmarks is its innovative spirit, which is reflected in its motto: “Rethinking education.” President Henry B. Eyring, Second Counselor in the First Presidency — who served as president of BYU–Idaho’s predecessor, Ricks College — said during his campus devotional address in 2001 that the phrase “rethinking education” is not simply a slogan. “The school is to be a place of educational innovation permanently.”
BYU–Idaho Fall 2024 Enrollment
- 24,111 on-campus students
- 4,723 campus students taking online courses or completing an internship
- 21,473 online students in partnership with BYU–Pathway Worldwide
- 45,584 total student enrollment
- Of the 24,111 on-campus students:
- 11,849 males (49%)
- 12,262 females (51%)
- 5,068 married students (21%)
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