As other states face daunting drops in student enrollment, Utah’s public colleges and universities are continuing to buck trends with record-breaking growth this fall.

In fact, the boom was so big for Utah schools that the percentage of growth was the largest it’s ever been — at 4.4% overall — surpassing even last year’s record number , according to data released this week.

The number of added students — 9,112 more going into higher education this year — has also never been so high. The state now has a total of 216,117 enrolled across its eight traditional schools in its public system. That matches the population of Salt Lake City proper.

Last year, there were 207,005 students overall and the system saw 4.3% growth.

One school, in particular, saw substantial growth and accounted fo

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