Nursing Program Dramatically Increases Enrollment
Receives $1.1 Million for Successful Student Recruitment

Texas Woman’s University will receive $1,105,921 in state funding – more than twice the amount of any other Texas university – for increasing its undergraduate nursing student enrollment by 20.1 percent from fall 2001 to fall 2002.

TWU will receive the funds, 38 percent of the total awarded statewide, through Senate Bill 572, which offers several incentives to undergraduate nursing programs for retaining and enrolling more students.

Under the same legislation, TWU last year received $517,328 for the 2001–2002 academic year for increasing student credit hours by 17 percent. The bill only called for a 3 percent increase to receive additional funding. The prior year, TWU’s student credit hours increased by 36 percent, although the bill only called for a 6 percent increase.

“Just over a half-million dollars in additional funding was exciting last year,” said Carolyn Gunning, Ph.D., College of Nursing dean. “More than $1 million this year is thrilling.”

Upper-level undergraduate nursing enrollment was 542 students in fall 2000, 582 in fall 2001, and 699 in fall 2002.

TWU has 127 additional undergraduate nursing students who are already registered nurses but do not have a baccalaureate degree. Their student credit hours are not counted in the enrollment-growth funding formula.

“TWU has taken a leadership role in addressing Texas’ nursing shortage by adding faculty to accommodate more students who want to attend TWU and by initiating programs to help retain students,” said TWU Chancellor Ann Stuart. “We’re proud of our College of Nursing and its faculty for stepping up to the challenge of addressing the nursing shortage.”

TWU has added six new teaching positions in the College of Nursing since 2000 – four in 2001 and two in 2002 – to accommodate upper-level students.

The additional students were juniors who had already completed two years of core class instruction and were ready to begin intensive nursing instruction and clinicals, Gunning said.

Prior to adding the 2001 faculty, TWU’s nursing program enrollment was at capacity and many prospective students were on a waiting list. Before knowing how much additional funding the university could qualify for under Senate Bill 572, Stuart made the decision to hire additional faculty to accommodate many of the students on the waiting list.

In addition, the college’s Student Success Program for at-risk students received the 2002 Texas Higher Education Star Award from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. At-risk students take courses in time management, study skills, English usage, test taking, computer usage, medical calculations, understanding the role of nurses in American professional culture, managing stress and thinking critically. Without the program, historical data suggests about one-half of participating students most likely would have dropped out of the nursing program.

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