As homecoming season begins, Delaware State University is approaching a record enrollment of nearly 7,000 students. Enrollment across all campuses and programs is running ahead of where it stood at this point last year, putting the University on pace to surpass last fall’s record census of 6,623 when it certifies Fall 2026 enrollment on Oct. 31. Since 2020, when the University enrolled 5,027 students, enrollment has grown nearly 40 percent.
As of Oct. 7, there were 6,990 students registered across the University’s Dover and Wilmington campuses, its online programs, and its international partnerships, including 6,370 on the University’s U.S. campuses, roughly 10 percent more than at the same point a year ago. Final counts come at census on Oct. 31, after the University’s second term start, additional online sessions — including the first cohorts of eHBCU, the national online consortium of HBCUs the University leads — and semester starts in its international locations.
The growth is coming from students who are already here. While new out-of-state freshman enrollment is down roughly a third from the same point last year, continuing undergraduates from Delaware and from out of state are up 7 percent, the clearest measure that students who enroll at Delaware State are persisting toward degrees. Graduate enrollment is up 5.6 percent, driven by online programs and continuing online graduate students are up nearly 40 percent, a historic high.
“The number I care most about is not how many students arrive — it’s how many stay, and how many finish,” said Tony Allen, president of Delaware State University. “Every one of these students came to change the trajectory of their lives — for themselves, their families and their communities. They deserve quality, commitment and community from the University they call home. The growth we are seeing this fall is where we meet them. How we see them through is the proof of our belief in them and their belief in us — a mutual investment with significant return for generations to come.”…