Profile of the University of Nebraska at Kearney

--5,478 undergraduate students
--1,006 graduate students
--Students from all 93 Nebraska counties, 47 states and 49 countries
--307 full-time, 67 part-time faculty
--More than 90 percent hold terminal (highest) degrees in their field
--Student-to-Faculty ratio -- 16 to 1
--Average class size -- Less than 25 students
--8 traditional-style residence halls
--2 Greek chapter house complexes (12 UNK fraternities and sororities)
--1 University-owned off-campus apartment complex
--3 suite-style residence halls—Nester North, Nester South and Antelope Halls
--170 undergraduate majors
--25 pre-professional programs
--34 graduate degrees
--Four-year Honors Program
--Largest percentage of international students among undergraduates (11 percent) of any other college or university in Nebraska or neighboring Midwest region
--30 percent of the state’s principals, and 47% of school superintendents are UNK grads
--235-acre campus in Central Nebraska’s educational, medical and cultural center
--30,000+ people reside in Kearney
--17 NCAA Division II sports within the Rocky Mountain, including women’s soccer new Fall, 2009
--Athletic Conference (RMAC).
--The U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges 2009” ranks UNK among the top 15 public universities at the Master’s level in the Midwest
--At 80 percent, UNK’s retention rate of freshmen-to-sophomores is well above the national average
--1905 Founded as Nebraska State Normal School
--1921 Became Nebraska State Teachers College
--1963 Renamed Kearney State College
--1991 Became University of Nebraska at Kearney

Growth Explodes for Online Enrollment at UNK's eCampus

Online enrollment at UNK through its eCampus program has exploded in recent years, with no end in sight. eCampus at UNK is one of the fastest-growing segments of the student population, expanding from only 251 students in 2002 to 2,151 last year. The main limitation is the number of classes that can be developed with limited resources. Some academic departments say that they can fill all the classes they offer, with waiting lists.
UNK offers the same quality online degree programs and courses that are offered on the campus. The majority of the instruction is taught by credentialed faculty with doctoral degrees who are committed to quality teaching. Online courses are highly interactive with faculty and students communicating through e-mail, discussion forums, and chat groups via Blackboard course management software. Many courses use multimedia presentations, streaming video, and supplemental CDs/DVDs.
Online at UNK is especially strong in the graduate school of Education. Teachers across Nebraska (and around the nation and world) are finding the high quality of the online experience at UNK to be compelling, as well as highly convenient. Of particular note is an online master's program in biology, a very popular program among science teachers.
UNK has learned well how to design and conduct online courses. In its most recent visit, the North Central Association (NCA), UNK’s main accrediting agency, approved UNK to offer any course in its curriculum in an online format, affirming the quality that has quickly emerged as a trademark of eCampus. Online at UNK is also useful to many traditional UNK students to help them get the classes they need when they need them, as a supplement to their traditional classroom experience.

Early Morning Summer Sunshine on the UNK Campus

The campus of the University of Nebraska at Kearney has undergone almost continuous renovation over the past several years accompanied by some magnificent new landscaping. Those improvements have resulted in one of the most beautiful campuses in Nebraska, even after a tornado ripped roofs and trees last summer and a major ice storm did major damage the previous year.
Just after the recent Fourth of July holiday weekend, I found myself up very early one Sunday morning with my camera. The sun, just peeking over the horizon, played with buildings, grass, trees, sculptures, and every other part of campus. I recorded the beauty of that morning, and share it with you. Click here to view a slide show entitled, "Early Morning Summer Sunshine on the UNK Campus."

Education Committee of Unicameral Conducts Interim Study on Post-Secondary Education

With LR 262, the Education Committee of the Nebraska Unicameral has established an Interim Study "to examine issues relating to postsecondary education." The University of Nebraska System Office in Lincoln is providing important support for this study, including data showing how the proportion of state support for higher education in Nebraska has declined more or less steadily for the past 20 years from 19 percent in 1991 to 14 percent projected in 2011. The data also compares percentage growth in general fund support during the same period for the three major categories of higher education, University of Nebraska (86% growth), State Colleges (117% growth), and the Community Colleges (180% growth).
State General Fund growth was 151 percent during the period while support for K-12 (including ARRA funds this year) rose 183 percent. At the same time, support for higher education, overall, rose 99 percent.
The steady erosion in rate of public support for the university has been felt by students in the form of tuition increases, as tuition is the only other major source of operating income to the University which it needs to maintain programs and quality. The ratio of state appropriation to tuition income shifted from 80/20 in 1992 to 70/30 today. (UNK became part of NU system in 1992).