UVA projects increase in graduate student enrollment through 2031 while undergraduate population will remain flat

The University of Virginia is not expecting to increase undergraduate enrollment within the next seven years according to the outgoing provost.

“We’re not projecting any significant growth in undergraduate on Grounds enrollment but we’re keeping the size of the first time first year class essentially steady,” said Ian Baucom, who left the position on March 7 to become president of Middlebury College in Vermont.

There were a total of 17,469 undergraduates on-Grounds in 2024 and that number is projected to remain the same through 2031. Speaking to the Academic and Student Life Committee on March 6, Baucom said that could change in the future.

There were 4,957 graduate students in the fall of 2024 and that number is projected to increase to 5,400 by 2031. Baucom said the Batten School is planning on launching new programs and the School of Data Science is growing rapidly.

The 2024 number doesn’t include students at the School of Law or School of Medicine for which there were a total of 1,451. That number is only expected to increase by several dozen to 1,515 in 2031.

Baucom said these numbers are important for overall planning.

“We need to make sure that we can house our students, that they’re dining supports for them, their student affairs support, library support,” Baucom said.

Baucom said UVA could grow if it wanted as there is demand, but President Jim Ryan said there’s no need to add more undergraduates.

“We’re a very good size and have hit the sweet spot of being big enough so that you can explore or pursue any interest you want, but small enough that it still feels fairly intimate,” Ryan said. “And I think that’s a key part of UVA’s identity.”

Brie Gertler has taken over as interim provost.

The Academic and Student Life Committee also approved several new endowed professorships at their meeting. One of them is the Donald Black Professorship in Holocaust Studies, named after a sociology professor who died in January 2024. According to the staff report, Black left funding in his well for the position in the Jewish Studies Program following a rise of antisemitism after attack by Hamas on Israel in October 2023.

“It will be a crucial addition to our scholarship and teaching in Jewish studies,” said outgoing provost Ian Baucom at his last meeting.

Another professorship made possible by the Pelican Fund is to establish a position in the campaign to eradicate Huntington’s Disease. Another medical professorship is to study women’s health during mid-life. The Jefferson Scholars Foundation is creating the Paul Tudor Jones Professorship in Climate and the Environment.

The committee also approved a proposal to eliminate the Master’s of Arts in Asian Studies as well as the Master’s of Arts in Chemistry.

“Both are being discontinued due to lack of sustained enrollments and have been through the regular process of review within the university, concluding with the Faculty Senate before coming to the Board of Visitors,” Baucom said.

Baucom noted that there is still a Master’s of Science degree available for chemistry.

Before you go: This is the fifth story to come out from the University of Virginia Board of Visitors meeting from March 6 and March 7 or 2025. Town Crier Productions is a one-person operation so sometimes it takes a while to get to everything. This went out in the March 10, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement.