Photo courtesy University of Richmond
In a shifting higher education landscape, colleges and universities are facing pressures and enrollment challenges like never before. Declining birth rates, persistent threats to federal funding, and concerns over rising tuition and student indebtedness have left many four-year schools to stare down an uncertain future.
The Richmond region’s flagship colleges and universities, however, appear to be on solid footing. On the whole, enrollment is returning to pre-pandemic levels, artificial intelligence is fueling new academic curricula, and growing demand in health and sciences has spurred more research and workforce training initiatives.
Every four-year school in the region is adding major capital projects, such as new student housing and renovating or expanding academic buildings.
Healthy, growing higher education institutions bode well for the local economy, says Jennifer Wakefield, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Richmond Partnership. Student growth, workforce initiatives and a new focus on AI also boost the region’s marketability.
“Our higher education providers and workforce partners are critical to us winning companies that locate here, that bring jobs and investment to this region,” she says. “We couldn’t do what we do to recruit those companies without having a strong foundation of both K-12 education, and that’s both public and private, as well as technical schools, community colleges and all of our higher education partners.”
Virginia Commonwealth University
Central Virginia’s largest university with more than 29,000 students, VCU has increased its focus on preparing students for the workforce and recruiting in its own backyard by guaranteeing admission for high school graduates with a 3.5 GPA and NEXT Step VCU, a new dual-admission program with Reynolds Community College.
In fiscal year 2024, VCU surpassed $500 million in research spending, a significant milestone as it continues to expand both academic and medical campuses. A new athletic village is planned near the revamped Diamond District, construction is in full swing on the new $253 million CoStar Center for Arts and Innovation at Belvidere and Broad streets (across from the Institute for Contemporary Art), and in late November, the VCU Board of Visitors approved $25 million in site work for a massive, 14-story dormitory complex (up to 1,000 beds) on West Grace Street.
University of Richmond
Richmond’s namesake university, the privately run UR has undertaken major renovation and capital projects in the last two years, including more than $27.5 million improvements to its law school (completed in 2024) and the ongoing $25 million rehab of Boatwright Memorial Library.
The university also opened its new orchard and food forest in late summer, an “edible plant demonstration site” along a half-mile, paved trail in UR’s Eco-Corridor, which runs from UR Drive to River Road.
Meanwhile, UR is in the first year of its new Center for Liberal Arts and AI, which aims to bring in researchers, educators and students from “across the Associated Colleges of the South to explore pressing social, cultural, and legal questions and dimensions of artificial intelligence,” according to the university.
Virginia Union University
Founded in 1865, Richmond’s historic Black college is expanding. Enrollment has eclipsed 2,000, according to a spokesperson, and the private university will soon begin construction on two housing projects that will expand the campus footprint: a 100-unit apartment complex with retail and commercial space at Brook Road and Lombardy Street, and 160 market-rate apartments along Brook and Overbrook roads, which includes the adaptive reuse of historic Community Hospital.
The university has also added career-focused certification programs in digital marketing, cybersecurity, project management, e-sports and gaming administration, and artificial intelligence. VUU is in the process of launching the Jordan Institute of Spiritual Technology and Digital Theology to “explore the intersection of spirituality and artificial intelligence” within the theology school, thanks to an $8 million gift from Archbishop E. Bernard Jordan, a renowned televangelist and VUU alum.
Virginia State University
Enrollment at the historically Black land-grant university in Ettrick, just outside of Petersburg, has grown 32% since 2019, surging past 5,700 students this fall — its highest enrollment in more than a decade.
One of the most affordable four-year schools in the state, VSU is building a 110,000-square-foot, 454-bed dormitory that’s expected to open later this year; last July, it cut the ribbon on its new, 174,000-square-foot Alfred W. Harris Academic Commons.
VSU also recently added to its academic programming, including four new degree programs: a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering and master’s in social work (trauma-informed care), business administration and data analytics.
The future appears to be even brighter. In late October, VSU received the largest single donation in the school’s history: a $50 million gift from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, author and ex-wife of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. Scott also gave the university $30 million in 2020.
The new Spotswood Village dormitory complex at Randolph-Macon College (Photo courtesy Randolph-Macon College)
Randolph-Macon College
The little college at the Center of the Universe, Ashland’s RMC just welcomed its largest incoming class — 600 new students — and largest fall enrollment in school history, with a total of 1,854 students.
The school has a new president, Michael E. Hill, and in September christened a new $12 million student housing complex, Spotswood Village, with 64 additional beds.
The university is among the most affordable liberal arts colleges in the country, coming in at No. 68 for “best value” in U.S. News and World Report rankings. It’s also expanding its academic offerings, adding a new data science major that combines RMC’s historic strength in mathematics and computer science.
