William Peace University Enrollment Up 9 Percent To 791 Students For 2012-2013 School Year

RALEIGH, NC, September 08, 2012 (Press-News.org) William Peace University (http://www.peace.edu), a private four-year university located in downtown Raleigh, has announced that its enrollment figure for the 2012-2013 school year totaled 791 students, an increase of 9 percent from its 725 student enrollment in 2011-2012. This year's enrollment includes 621 students in the university's traditional day program and 170 students in the School of Professional Studies, which provides accelerated evening, weekend and online courses to nontraditional students and offers a Bachelor of Science in business administration, a Bachelor of Arts in liberal studies, a Bachelor of Arts in psychology, a bachelor of arts in elementary, and a elementary education licensure only program.

A total of 310 new students enrolled in William Peace University, including first-year, transfer and re-entry individuals: 104 of them, or 33.5 percent, are male. This school year marks the first academic year that the university has admitted male students to its day program.

A total of 76 of the 230 first-year students are male, or 33 percent of the class. The female/male distribution remains close to the national average of other universities, most of which are approximately 60 percent female and 40 percent male. The number of students in the 2012-2013 first-year class is 69.1 percent higher than the first-year class of the previous year.

The number of returning students who requested to live on campus in 2012-2013 is 12 percent higher than the previous school year.

There were 4,500 inquiries from juniors interested in attending the university, and demand has been so high that the university added Early Decision Admissions earlier this year.

QUOTES:
"It is exciting to see such an increase in our student enrollment at William Peace University this year, as the uptick stands as an indication that our efforts to expand accessibility to our programs is succeeding," said Debra M. Townsley, Ph.D., president of William Peace University. "I am impressed with the turnout of our new male student body being in line with what other coeducational institutions are experiencing, and I look forward to their contributions to our study groups and campus life. It is also great to see that our retention rates and the number of returning students interested in living on campus are rising. All of these factors are strong indicators that our new coeducational model is in line with what our students need and want. We are on track for an outstanding school year at the university."

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ABOUT WILLIAM PEACE UNIVERSITY:
William Peace University is located in the heart of Raleigh, North Carolina. It was founded in 1857 as Peace Institute, offering education for boys and girls in primary grades and to women from high school to college. Peace, an all women's college, became a four-year baccalaureate college and graduated its first bachelor's students in August of 1996. Exclusively an all-women's institution for its first 152 years, Peace began offering coeducational evening courses through the William Peace School of Professional Studies in 2009. In 2011, Peace College transitioned to William Peace University and began admitting male students to its day program in fall 2012. Its mission is to prepare students for careers in the organizations of tomorrow. On average, more than 90 percent of the university's graduates are placed in jobs or graduate school within one year of graduation. For more information, please visit http://www.peace.edu.

Jennifer Fair
MMI Public Relations
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