State profile · AR
Arkansas
Arkansas has 29 degree-granting institutions in this data. Between them they award 862 research doctorates and 5,919 master’s degrees over the window, and take $214.8m in federal research and development money.
This page counts every institution in the state, including the ones that award no graduate degree at all. Leaving those out would make a state look like its flagship.
institutions in the state
9 award a research doctorate. 8 enrol no graduate students at all.
of research doctorates go to non-residents
402 of 862. National figure: 38.9%.
of graduate enrolment is non-resident
2,849 of 23,086 graduate students.
federal research and development money
Across 12 institutions. $182.3m in total federal obligations.
Where Arkansas sits
The non-resident share of research doctorates, against the same figure for the country. That is 7.7 points above the national figure of 38.9%.
Arkansas ranks 5 of 52 states on that share, and 39 of 56 on the number of research doctorates it awards. Rank 1 is the highest. Only states that award doctorates are ranked.
Undergraduate and graduate, side by side
The same institutions at two levels. Undergraduate is the remainder once graduate enrolment is taken out of the total, and both levels carry their own non-resident count. In Arkansas the graduate share is 10.0 points higher than the undergraduate share.
Click any column heading to sort. Click it again to reverse. The panel under the table narrows what is shown — everything is shown until you ask for less.
| Institution | Undergraduates | Non-res | Share | Graduates | Non-res | Share | State funding | Federal R&D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Arkansas | 27,472 | 356 | 1.3% | 4,668 | 821 | 17.6% | $235.5m | $230.6m |
| Arkansas State University | 8,760 | 654 | 7.5% | 5,272 | 257 | 4.9% | $72.8m | — |
| University of Central Arkansas | 7,884 | 277 | 3.5% | 1,906 | 72 | 3.8% | $64.4m | $3.1m |
| Arkansas Tech University | 8,808 | 139 | 1.6% | 679 | 79 | 11.6% | $43.2m | — |
| University of Arkansas at Little Rock | 5,789 | 146 | 2.5% | 2,369 | 495 | 20.9% | $70.4m | $10.5m |
| NorthWest Arkansas Community College | 7,839 | 17 | 0.2% | — | — | — | $13.4m | — |
| University of Arkansas-Fort Smith | 5,463 | 59 | 1.1% | 43 | 0 | 0.0% | $26.6m | — |
| Southern Arkansas University Main Campus | 3,224 | 42 | 1.3% | 1,903 | 925 | 48.6% | $18.9m | — |
| Harding University | 3,496 | 172 | 4.9% | 1,112 | 37 | 3.3% | — | — |
| University of Arkansas Grantham | 3,203 | 26 | 0.8% | 539 | 12 | 2.2% | — | — |
| University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences | 1,380 | 13 | 0.9% | 1,895 | 80 | 4.2% | $74.1m | $226.8m |
| University of Arkansas at Monticello | 2,328 | 13 | 0.6% | 411 | 9 | 2.2% | $20.4m | — |
| John Brown University | 1,882 | 129 | 6.9% | 459 | 1 | 0.2% | — | — |
| National Park College | 2,308 | 0 | 0.0% | — | — | — | $11.7m | — |
| Henderson State University | 1,493 | 40 | 2.7% | 643 | 20 | 3.1% | $22.6m | — |
| University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff | 1,905 | 37 | 1.9% | 195 | 34 | 17.4% | $29.1m | $8.0m |
| North Arkansas College | 1,930 | 8 | 0.4% | — | — | — | $8.9m | — |
| Ouachita Baptist University | 1,734 | 32 | 1.8% | 81 | 0 | 0.0% | — | — |
| Arkansas State University-Newport | 1,732 | 7 | 0.4% | — | — | — | $8.0m | — |
| Hendrix College | 1,098 | 22 | 2.0% | 9 | 0 | 0.0% | — | — |
| Philander Smith University | 848 | 65 | 7.7% | 18 | 0 | 0.0% | — | — |
| Arkansas Colleges of Health Education | 0 | 0 | — | 826 | 7 | 0.8% | — | — |
| Lyon College | 584 | 29 | 5.0% | — | — | — | — | — |
| Williams Baptist University | 491 | 31 | 6.3% | 23 | 0 | 0.0% | — | — |
| Strayer University-Arkansas | 456 | 0 | 0.0% | 27 | 0 | 0.0% | — | — |
| Ecclesia College | 138 | 20 | 14.5% | — | — | — | — | — |
| Jackson Theological Seminary | 1 | 0 | 0.0% | 8 | 0 | 0.0% | — | — |
| Lyon College-School of Dental Medicine | 0 | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| University of Arkansas System Office | 0 | 0 | — | — | — | — | $4.4m | — |
The two levels diverge most at Southern Arkansas University Main Campus: 1.3% of its 3,224 undergraduates and 48.6% of its 1,903 graduate students. These are different admissions systems with different applicant pools, different money and different reasons to say yes, and a single state figure hides both.
2,334 of 102,246 undergraduates and 2,849 of 23,086 graduate students. IPEDS reports no graduate enrolment for 8 of these institutions; their rows show a dash rather than a zero, because the file not carrying a number is not the same as the number being none.
What the state figure is an average of
The largest graduate enrolments in Arkansas, each with its own non-resident share. Nothing here is excluded from the figures above. The point is to show what they are made of.
| Institution | Graduate students | Share of the state | Non-resident |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arkansas State University | 5,272 | 22.8% | 4.9% |
| University of Arkansas | 4,668 | 20.2% | 17.6% |
| University of Arkansas at Little Rock | 2,369 | 10.3% | 20.9% |
| University of Central Arkansas | 1,906 | 8.3% | 3.8% |
| Southern Arkansas University Main Campus | 1,903 | 8.2% | 48.6% |
| University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences | 1,895 | 8.2% | 4.2% |
One institution is moving this figure
Arkansas State University holds 22.8% of the graduate enrolment in Arkansas and is 4.9% non-resident. Take it out and the rest of the state is 14.6%, against 12.3% with it in. A state average is not a description of its universities when one of them is most of the state.
Practical training, and the other student visas
A student visa does not end at graduation. Optional Practical Training lets a graduate work on the same visa, and a STEM degree adds a further twenty-four months. It applies at both levels, so the undergraduate share above is not the end of the story.
No institution in Arkansas appears in SEVP’s published lists, which cover the top 100 and top 200 schools for OPT and STEM OPT. There is therefore no published practical training figure for this state. That is a fact about what the agency releases, not a statement that no one here is on OPT.
J-1 physicians. Arkansas is not in the published top twelve states for J-1 physicians in graduate medical education, which is the only state breakdown ECFMG publishes. That is an absence from a short list, not a zero.
In-state against out-of-state
Public four-year institutions, FY2024. Every foreign student pays the out-of-state rate, so this is the price attached to the non-resident column everywhere else on this page.
An out-of-state student in Arkansas is worth 1.89× an in-state one to the institution. They are 30.9% of the students and 45.8% of the tuition revenue.
| Measure | In-state | Out-of-state |
|---|---|---|
| Share of students (FTE) | 69.1% | 30.9% |
| Net tuition and fees collected per student | $6,809 | $12,870 |
| Share of tuition revenue | 54.2% | 45.8% |
Out-of-state is not the same as foreign. SHEEO counts international students and domestic students from other states in one column. This shows what a non-resident pays, never how many of them are foreign. Figures are net tuition and fee revenue per full-time-equivalent student — what the institution actually collected after its own aid, not the published price. Public four-year institutions only; medical FTE excluded. SHEEO records that Arkansas estimated part of this breakout for this year.
Every institution
Largest first by total enrolment. A dash means the institution awards none of that degree, or that no federal research money was matched to it.
| Institution | City | Control | Enrolled | Graduate | Master’s | Non-res | Doctorates | Non-res | Federal R&D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Arkansas | Fayetteville | public | 32,140 | 4,668 | 1,851 | 378 | 1,059 | 371 | $230.6m |
| Arkansas State University | Jonesboro | public | 14,032 | 5,272 | 662 | 279 | 240 | 20 | — |
| University of Central Arkansas | Conway | public | 9,790 | 1,906 | 141 | 24 | 89 | 0 | $3.1m |
| Arkansas Tech University | Russellville | public | 9,487 | 679 | 182 | 113 | 50 | 0 | — |
| University of Arkansas at Little Rock | Little Rock | public | 8,158 | 2,369 | 517 | 376 | 219 | 99 | $10.5m |
| NorthWest Arkansas Community College | Bentonville | public | 7,839 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| University of Arkansas-Fort Smith | Fort Smith | public | 5,506 | 43 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Southern Arkansas University Main Campus | Magnolia | public | 5,127 | 1,903 | 1,849 | 1,777 | 11 | 0 | — |
| Harding University | Searcy | private nonprofit | 4,608 | 1,112 | 177 | 22 | 50 | 1 | — |
| University of Arkansas Grantham | LIttle Rock | public | 3,742 | 539 | 87 | 1 | — | — | — |
| University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences | Little Rock | public | 3,275 | 1,895 | 100 | 16 | 132 | 40 | $226.8m |
| University of Arkansas at Monticello | Monticello | public | 2,739 | 411 | — | — | — | — | — |
| John Brown University | Siloam Springs | private nonprofit | 2,341 | 459 | 15 | 0 | — | — | — |
| National Park College | Hot Springs | public | 2,308 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Henderson State University | Arkadelphia | public | 2,136 | 643 | 40 | 0 | — | — | — |
| University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff | Pine Bluff | public | 2,100 | 195 | 35 | 9 | 2 | 1 | $8.0m |
| North Arkansas College | Harrison | public | 1,930 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Ouachita Baptist University | Arkadelphia | private nonprofit | 1,815 | 81 | 99 | 0 | — | — | — |
| Arkansas State University-Newport | Newport | public | 1,732 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Hendrix College | Conway | private nonprofit | 1,107 | 9 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Philander Smith University | Little Rock | private nonprofit | 866 | 18 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Arkansas Colleges of Health Education | Fort Smith | private nonprofit | 826 | 826 | 160 | 1 | — | — | — |
| Lyon College | Batesville | private nonprofit | 584 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Williams Baptist University | Walnut Ridge | private nonprofit | 514 | 23 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Strayer University-Arkansas | Little Rock | private for-profit | 483 | 27 | 4 | 0 | — | — | — |
| Ecclesia College | Springdale | private nonprofit | 138 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Jackson Theological Seminary | North Little Rock | private nonprofit | 9 | 8 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Lyon College-School of Dental Medicine | Little Rock | private nonprofit | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| University of Arkansas System Office | Little Rock | public | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Degrees are pooled over 2021–2025. Enrolment and federal money are the most recent year in the file. “Non-res” means a student here on a temporary visa, almost always F-1 or J-1. A green card holder is not counted in it.
How few institutions this is
Of the 29 institutions in Arkansas, 9 award a research doctorate at all, and the largest two award 70.1% of them. A state’s graduate pipeline is a much smaller thing than its list of colleges.
| Institution | Research doctorates | Non-resident | Share | Share of the state’s doctorates |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Arkansas | 1,059 | 371 | 35.0% | 57.2% |
| Arkansas State University | 240 | 20 | 8.3% | 13.0% |
| University of Arkansas at Little Rock | 219 | 99 | 45.2% | 11.8% |
| University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences | 132 | 40 | 30.3% | 7.1% |
| University of Central Arkansas | 89 | 0 | 0.0% | 4.8% |
| Arkansas Tech University | 50 | 0 | 0.0% | 2.7% |
| Harding University | 50 | 1 | 2.0% | 2.7% |
| Southern Arkansas University Main Campus | 11 | 0 | 0.0% | 0.6% |
| University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff | 2 | 1 | 50.0% | 0.1% |
The foreign share of graduate students, where the survey reaches
The NSF Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates asks institutions directly, and it covers 8 of the 29 institutions in Arkansas. It is a different measure from the degree counts above: enrolled students rather than degrees awarded.
| Institution | Doctoral students foreign | Master’s students foreign |
|---|---|---|
| University of Arkansas at Little Rock | 63.2% | 90.9% |
| University of Arkansas | 50.4% | 29.0% |
| Arkansas State University | 45.2% | 27.6% |
| University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences | 33.1% | 4.4% |
| University of Central Arkansas | 3.2% | 9.0% |
| Arkansas Tech University | —% | 69.6% |
| Southern Arkansas University Main Campus | —% | 96.0% |
| University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff | —% | 26.7% |
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
The highest foreign share of doctoral students in the state, at 63.2%. It is not the largest institution here and it is not the one with the most federal money. Size and share are different questions, and a state page that ranked only by size would not show this.
What the state itself puts in
State appropriations per full-time-equivalent student, from the SHEEO finance survey, against the change in the foreign share of graduate enrolment over the same window.
| Measure | First year | Last year | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| State appropriations per FTE student | $9,209 | $8,744 | -5.1% |
| Foreign share of graduate enrolment | 7.6% | 13.7% | +6.1 pts |
These two rows move for their own reasons. Nothing here shows that one caused the other, and the page does not say it did.
Department by department
The dissertation corpus reaches 1 institution in this state, covering 11 departments. 4 of them are majority non-resident.
| Institution | Department | Doctorates | Non-resident | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| U Arkansas | Cell/Cellular and Molecular Biology | 75 | 53 | 70.7% |
| U Arkansas | Engineering, General | 296 | 196 | 66.2% |
| U Arkansas | Materials Chemistry | 47 | 27 | 57.4% |
| U Arkansas | Physics, General | 43 | 24 | 55.8% |
| U Arkansas | Mathematics, General | 30 | 15 | 50.0% |
| U Arkansas | Geology/Earth Science, General | 16 | 8 | 50.0% |
| U Arkansas | Chemistry, General | 58 | 20 | 34.5% |
| U Arkansas | Entomology | 17 | 4 | 23.5% |
| U Arkansas | Geological and Earth Sciences/Geosciences, Other | 31 | 6 | 19.4% |
| U Arkansas | Biology/Biological Sciences, General | 37 | 7 | 18.9% |
| U Arkansas | Psychology, General | 53 | 1 | 1.9% |
From the dissertation corpus, which is built from what universities publish about their own graduates. It covers the institutions on this site, not every institution in the state, so it is a floor.
What is not published for a state this size
Two of the measures this site uses elsewhere do not exist at this scale, and the reason is the same in both cases: the agency publishes a ranked extract rather than the whole file.
- Practical training is not published here. SEVP releases the top 100 and top 200 schools for OPT and STEM OPT, not every school. An institution outside those lists has no published figure at all. Its absence is a fact about the list, not about the institution, and it must never be read as a zero.
- Student visa counts are not published by state. DHS reports SEVIS records nationally and names a few states per region in its commentary. For most states it publishes a percentage change and no count, so the number of foreign students physically in a state cannot be read off the federal release.
- Enrolment is the measure that does exist. IPEDS asks every institution directly, which is why this page is built from it. It counts students enrolled, not visas issued, and the two are different questions.
Method and limits
- Non-resident means here on a temporary visa. IPEDS defines it as a person “who is not a citizen or national of the United States and who is in this country on a visa or temporary basis and does not have the right to remain indefinitely.” A green card holder is therefore never counted here. Neither is a refugee or an asylee. Those students are reported in the race and ethnicity categories alongside citizens. For students the category is overwhelmingly F-1 and J-1.
- It is not ethnicity and not country of origin. A US-born citizen of any background is never non-resident. The status is recorded when the student enrols, for the enrolment figures, and when the degree is awarded, for the degree counts. These files cannot be split any other way.
- Degrees are pooled over 2021–2025, because a single year at a small institution moves on one student.
- Enrolment and awards are different measures and will not agree. One counts people on a given day; the other counts degrees conferred over five years.
- Federal money is matched to a campus, and a system that reports centrally can carry money its branches spend.
- This page shows composition, not displacement. It records who received the degrees. It does not show that anyone was kept out, and nothing here should be read that way.
Built by scripts/build_state_pages.py from
institution_profiles.json,
state_funding_and_enrolment.json
and university_distribution.json.
Compare the country on the national overview.