Fall 2026 enrollment declines slightly driven by international student losses

AURORA – The University of Colorado’s estimated fall 2026 enrollment is 66,769 students, a decline of 926 students, or -1.4% from fall 2025, with nearly two-thirds of the systemwide decrease attributable to fewer international students.

Preliminary figures were presented to the Board of Regents during its Sept. 10-11 meeting at CU Anschutz.

International enrollment declined by 583 students, or -17.8%, across the CU system compared with fall 2025. The largest decrease was among international graduate students, whose enrollment fell by 465 students, or -22.5%. International undergraduate enrollment decreased by 118 students, or 9.7%. CU Anschutz saw an overall gain of 64 students.

Despite the overall decline, new first-year undergraduate enrollment increased slightly systemwide. The CU system enrolled an estimated 10,480 new first-year students in fall 2026, an increase of 50 students, or 0.5%.

“Despite some challenges with enrollment, CU continues to attract students to all four of our campuses. Heading into the fall, CU is seeing systemwide growth in resident student enrollment, including more than 47,000 Colorado residents,” said Chad Marturano, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for CU. “CU continues to invest significantly in both scholarships and financial aid as well as important efforts like concurrent enrollment that help speed time to degree. All of this saves Colorado families money and makes the prospect of a CU degree a good return on the investment.”

Here’s a look at projected enrollment at each of CU’s four campuses:

• CU Boulder enrollment is estimated at 38,510 students, down 298 students, or -0.8%.
• University of Colorado Colorado Springs enrollment is estimated at 9,901 students, down 493 students, or -4.7%.
• CU Denver enrollment is estimated at 13,654 students, down 199 students, or -1.4%.
• CU Anschutz enrollment is estimated at 4,704 students, up 64 students, or 1.4%.

Final census numbers for all campuses will be completed by Sept. 30.

In other business at last week’s regents meeting:

• The board voted to approve a resolution affirming its support of CU’s new systemwide Strategic Plan, as presented on the plan’s website. Regular updates to the site, as well as annual reports provided to the board from administration, will show progress toward the goals described in the plan.

• The board approved a resolution in solemn remembrance of 9/11, followed by a moment of silence. Friday marked 25 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Among those lost, the resolution notes, were 10 CU Boulder alumni and former students: Nina Patrice Bell, Chris Ciafardini, Scott Thomas Coleman, Brian Thomas Cummins, Leslie Whittington Falkenberg, Christopher Faughnan, Allison Horstmann Jones, Chandler “Chad” Keller, Joshua “Rosie” Rosenblum and Adam Shelby White, “whose lives of professional achievement, academic distinction, and personal promise were cut short in the World Trade Center and at the Pentagon.” Read more here.

• Regent Emeritus Robert Earl “Bob” Caldwell was honored with the board’s passage of a memorial resolution. Caldwell died Aug. 4, 2026, in Boulder at age 88. A CU Boulder alumnus, he was elected to the Board of Regents and served from 1986 through 1992. Read more here.

• The board formally recognized Marc Moss, M.D., as a member of the most recent cohort of Distinguished Professors, CU’s highest honor for faculty across the four-campus system. Moss is the Roger S. Mitchell Professor of Medicine-Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine in the CU School of Medicine at CU Anschutz. This year’s other Distinguished Professors were formally recognized at the board’s February meeting at CU Boulder.

• The board approved two appointments with tenure at CU Boulder, effective Sept. 10, 2026: Bohyun Kim, Professor, University Libraries; and Maxwell Robb, Professor, Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences.