MnSCU Enrolls 100,000th Online Student This Year

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- A Minneapolis woman has become the 100,000th online student this year at the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.

She's 28-year-old Rose Youngmark, a mother of six who lives in north Minneapolis who recently registered for a geography course at North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park.

A preliminary estimate for the system's online enrollment in the 2011 fiscal year is 107,032, up from 95,749 in 2010. That's a nearly 12 percent increase.

Online education has become an important part of MnSCU's (MINN-skews) offerings.

A preliminary analysis by the system shows that 19.5 percent of full-year credits offered in fiscal year 2011 were available in classes with an online component. That's up from 17 percent the year before.

MnSCU serves about 277,000 students per year in credit-based courses.

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