UW-Oshkosh sees a decrease in enrollment over last year

OSHKOSH, Wis. (WISS) – While overall enrollment at the Universities of Wisconsin went up for the third straight year, UW-Oshkosh saw a decrease of 773 students from last year.

According to official fall 2025 enrollment figures released last week, 190 more students are attending UW schools than in fall 2024, with 164,626 students enrolled in the 13 campus universities. Nine of the 13 UW universities experienced enrollment growth. UWO was not one of the nine.

UW-Oshkosh

Last year, 10-day fall 2024 enrollment figures showed 12,964 students enrolled at UWO. This year, only 12,191 students are enrolled in the university. UWO Chancellor Manohar Singh said universities are seeing a decline in enrollment due to declining birthrates and fewer students graduating from high schools. To counteract the reduction in enrollment, Singh said UWO will focus on retention of students, introduce new graduate programs, and new athletic programs. 

“Given the demographic cliff and the birth rate decline, we are actively countering those forces by new programs, by graduate, by athletics. We are also going to have a push towards retaining these students,” Singh said. “Weather it is taking care of their financials by offering scholarships and campus jobs, or if it is, by supporting their tutoring services, their language services, and all those supporting services– Biggest one is mental health and physical wellbeing. Those are our focus so that students do not graduate with a degree but are broken inside. We want them to be complete human persons when they graduate, happy and ready to contribute.”

Singh said UWO will expand its marketing efforts for new students beyond northeast Wisconsin. It will recruit nationally, internationally, and will expand some efforts online.

Singh said not all of the news is bad at UWO. The number of new graduate students is 17 percent higher than last year. Transfers are up 4 percent, and the UWO campus has increased the enrollment of incoming freshman by 2 percent.

“So when I say that we are focusing on recruiting larger incoming classes into graduate and into undergraduate and from transfers, the results are very clearly showing an upward trend and a strong one,” he said. 

The challenge universities as a whole face is related to the perception that higher education is not a good value. Singh disputes that perception.

“My role as a chancellor is to highlight the role of education in building this nation, building the communities, providing employment jobs, providing talent to our local businesses,” said Singh. “Every dollar spent in a university is four to seven times multiplied in generating economic impact.”

UW System

A press release from the UW system said, overall, new freshman enrollment rose by 5.5 percent, or 1,033 students. 

“This is a moment worth celebrating,” said Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman in a press release. “Three years of sustained growth shows that students and families see the Universities of Wisconsin as a smart investment in themselves and in Wisconsin’s future. It will help Wisconsin win the war for talent.”

Overall enrollment gains were tempered by a decline of 7.6 percent in international students.

The 10th-day enrollment figures serve as the basis for the statistics reported to the federal government. 

The final 10-day fall 2025 enrollment figures for each university are:

• UW-Eau Claire: 9,487
• UW-Green Bay: 11,519
• UW-La Crosse: 10,584
• UW-Madison: 51,481
• UW-Milwaukee: 22,909
• UW-Oshkosh: 12,191
• UW-Parkside: 3,920
• UW-Platteville: 6,426
• UW-River Falls: 5,377
• UW-Stevens Point: 8,532
• UW-Stout: 7,061
• UW-Superior: 2,872
• UW-Whitewater: 12,267