Photo by Samantha Davis Southwest Minnesota State University interim president Dr. David Jones gives the annual state university address Friday morning on campus. He discussed university topics like enrollment, highlights and strategic planning.

MARSHALL — Southwest Minnesota State University is starting off the new school year with record-breaking numbers, and has officially seen the largest total-headcount enrollment in institutional history as the 2025-26 school year is well underway.

SMSU interim president Dr. David Jones gave the news at the annual state university address Friday morning on campus.

After the 30-day period into the new school year when universities collect enrollment data, SMSU has a total headcount of 8,507 enrolled students for the fall semester.

“It is the largest enrollment this university has ever experienced … It’s a massive amount of growth,” Jones said. “It really is a point of pride for us, and one we should not be bashful about.”

Specifically, the total number consists of 2,533 undergraduate students, 532 graduate students and 5,442 College Now concurrent enrolled and PSEO (Postsecondary Enrollment Options) students. College Now concurrent students are high school students taking college-level courses with SMSU.

“You can see the large number of the high school students we serve here, and this university should be super proud of that experience. Our state system serves just over 47,000 high school students across all 30-some institutions. We are the leader,” Jones said. “There’s some others that are right behind us, but when you look at that, we’re serving about 11% of that total population at this point in time, and we’re doing it better than anyone else.”

The total headcount is a 9.4% increase over Fall 2024, with a 7.7% increase for undergraduate students and 10.1% for graduate enrollment. The College Now Program also sees a 10.7% increase from last fall semester. Notably, SMSU’s international student enrollment also saw a 25.7% increase.

“We’re now the third largest university in our state system,” Jones said. “It’s also a recognition of the great work that’s been done here, and it gives us an opportunity to imagine into the future as we are having more people to serve.”

The news also came on a special date for the school, marking 62 years to the day when Marshall was selected as the new location for the next Minnesota university.

“Today is an important date within the history of our university. On this date, 1963, the City of Marshall was selected as the location for the next state university. So, happy birthday to us,” Jones said, with the room growing in applause. “A lot has changed over the past 62 years, except for the close relationship between Marshall and SMSU. Our history is of our creation, and we enjoy the shade of those who planned and built this campus years ago.”

Jones also revealed that the first-to-second year retention rate of first-time, full-time students is in the 70-percent rate for the second year in a row, with a retention of 71.6% this year.

“That’s tremendous. We’ve made great progress as a university to get up into the 70s,” Jones said. “We need to do more, and we need to make sure we’re providing all the resources and the support to help students continue to make their way through each semester.”

Jones also credited former SMSU president Kumara Jayasuriya at the beginning of his address, for his leadership and enrollment growth he sparked.

SMSU also had big enrollment jumps last school year, seeing a handful of increases from the year prior as well. Fall 2024 saw an overall 14.9% headcount increase from Fall 2023.

“We’re serving a lot of students. We’re growing online and everything … We want to make sure we’re looking at a lot of different sectors,” Jones added about the historic growth. “So, we’re continuing to make sure that we’re able to do that, and the future looks bright for what we can do.”