KANIL KUMAR, a mechanical engineering graduate student at Michigan Technological University, talks with Traci Laabs, a senior manager in process automation for Pfizer, during a Career Fest activity on campus Tuesday. (Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette photo)

HOUGHTON — Michigan Technological University’s enrollment increased again this year, reaching its highest levels since 1982.

This year’s numbers are up to 7,430 students, a 1.5% increase from last year.

The undergraduate student population rose by more than 2%. At 88.7%, the university’s retention rate also set a new high.

“While we are pleased to see our highest enrollment since the early 1980s, this measured growth is very much a reflection of our long-term vision,” Vice President for University Relations and Enrollment John Lehman said in a statement. “Michigan Tech has consistently provided a rigorous, hands-on education that our students and the employers who hire them have valued for years — something the Wall Street Journal affirmed today, naming Tech one of the top 15 institutions in the nation ‘that make new graduates rich.'”

Two-thirds of the score for the Wall Street Journal list is based on graduates’ median earnings a decade after college, with the other third coming from a comparison of those numbers to the cost to education.

Some of the increase in enrollment has been driven by the addition of a bachelor’s degree in nursing last fall, which Tech added after the closure of Finlandia University and its nursing program. The program is one of many using Tech’s new H-STEM Engineering and Health Technology Complex, which opened in April.

Tech also plans expansions to accommodate growing enrollment. East Hall, a new residence hall that will house more than 500 students, is being built in what was formerly the parking lot for the Rozsa Center. It is expected to be completed in fall 2025. Upgrades to the Daniell Heights student residences were finished in August.

Michigan Tech also plans to build a Center for Convergence and Innovation, which will provide a link between the colleges of business and computing.