UC Riverside has released its enrollment numbers for fall 2021, showing a record student population of 26,847. That represent a 1.6% increase from fall 2020, when 26,434 total undergraduate and graduate students were enrolled.

The student population includes 40.8% low-income students and 54.7% first-generation students. Forty-one percent of students are Latino and 35.1% Asian. 

Bourns College of Engineering’s student numbers, including undergraduate and graduate students, total 4,495, a dramatic increase from three years ago, when enrollment was about 3,400. In the past four years, School of Business enrollment has increased from 1,312 to 2,099. The School of Education, or SOE, has also seen dramatic growth, due largely to introduction of an undergraduate degree to complement its graduate program. SOE now has 890 students, compared to 234 four years ago, in fall 2017.

The enrollment numbers follow a cycle in which UCR admitted a record number of first-year students for fall 2021, with a total of 34,671 admits — an increase of 1,964 students from the year before. Among the nine UC undergraduate campuses, UCR admitted the most California residents — 29,004 — to its first-year class.

In recognition of COVID-19 challenges, the University of California made temporary adjustments to admissions requirements, including suspending the letter-grade requirement for high school classes taken in winter, spring, or summer terms of 2020 and the full 2020–21 academic year. UC also provided flexibility for students who needed more time to meet registration, deposit, and transcript deadlines last year.