West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission Chancellor Brian Noland told MetroNews Tuesday that for the first time in state history total enrollment has topped 90,000 students. The fall enrollment number is officially 93, 712.  (see report here)

While Noland is impressed with the depth of the increase he knows the state's colleges and universities won’t receive increased state funding because of it. That's why all higher education presidents are getting together Thursday in Morgantown for an efficiency summit.

"You really can't look to students and parents to cover much more than they are already covering," Noland said. "So if we are going to continue to serve more students, which we need to, we've got to be more efficient."

Chancellor Noland says much of the enrollment increase, up about 6,000 students from last year, is due to the downturn in the economy. "You have adults going back (to school) for retooling and retraining," he said.

The numbers show Glenville State's enrollment up more than 19 percent while Potomac State saw a 14 percent increase.

Chancellor Noland gave the numbers to state lawmakers Tuesday afternoon, but new numbers looking at graduation rates are less than impressive. "Some of our institutions are only graduating 20 percent of their students and that's unacceptable," Noland said.

"We've done a great job historically of enrolling students. We need to do an equally wonderful job in graduating them and to date we are falling short in that area," Noland said.