{"id":255329,"date":"2025-10-27T21:40:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T21:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/255329\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T21:40:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T21:40:13","slug":"johnson-wales-cites-enrollment-gains-in-charlotte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/255329\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnson & Wales cites enrollment gains in Charlotte"},"content":{"rendered":"

Johnson & Wales University<\/a> says its Charlotte campus had its largest incoming class since 2018, with 568 students, and its most total enrollment since 2020, with 1,298.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big deal for us,\u201d says President Richard Mathieu. \u201cIt\u2019s all about career outcomes. If the marketplace realizes you aren\u2019t placing student in good jobs, the growth won\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The higher enrollment comes before next fall\u2019s launch of a program that will award a bachelor\u2019s degree in hospitality management to students completing a 90-credit hour program over three years. J&W is the first university in the Southeast to offer such a program, which was approved by the New England Commission of Higher Education, an accreditation group. The UNC System Board of Governors also approved the effort.<\/p>\n

Most bachelor\u2019s degrees require 120 credit hours, but accreditors were \u201copen to the idea\u201d of a shorter program, he says. \u201cYou have to prove that your outcomes and students are going to be every bit as good as if they were in a 120-hour program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students won\u2019t take any electives as part of the program, but will participate in field work starting in their first year.<\/p>\n

Many private colleges are showing enrollment declines, but J&W benefits from its location in fast-growing Charlotte and its emphasis on culinary and health sciences education, says Mathieu,<\/a> who joined the university in 2023. He previously was dean of Queens University\u2019s business school in Charlotte. His goal is to raise enrollment to about 1,600 students within the next four years.<\/p>\n

The school\u2019s enrollment also benefited from the JWU Pledge, which offers students receiving Pell Grants grant and scholarship packages that can cover their undergraduate tuition. The program is possible because of private philanthropy and a state-funding tuition assistance programs for N.C. private colleges, Mathieu says. Pell Grants are available to students with limited income.<\/p>\n

Started in Providence, Rhode Island,<\/a> in 2014, J&W grew significantly during the 1990s and early 2000s, including adding its uptown Charlotte campus in 2004 with major support from center city boosters. Contributions from its faculty and students are credited with helping raise the Queen City\u2019s reputation for dining and hospitality.<\/p>\n

More recently, it has added degree programs in health science, public health and nursing.<\/p>\n

Since the pandemic, J&W has closed campuses in Denver and Miami. Earlier this year,<\/a> it cut about 90 jobs, or 5% of its faculty and staff, at the remaining Charlotte and Providence campuses in a cost-cutting move.<\/p>\n

J&W, which is a not-for-profit, private university, reported revenue of $366 million and total enrollment of 8,254 at its two campuses, according to its most recent tax filing for the June 2023 fiscal year.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

David Mildenberg is editor of Business North Carolina. Reach him at dmildenberg@businessnc.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Johnson & Wales University says its Charlotte campus had its largest incoming class since 2018, with 568 students,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":{"0":"post-255329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}