Online Universities Becoming More Popular

Enrollment is up at Columbia Southern University in Orange Beach. In fact, business is so good, the online university just moved into their new, state-of-the-art facility on the Foley Beach Express.

"Just last week we enrolled 273 new students," says CSU Prsident Robert Mayes. "We're currently at over 16-thousand students and by the end of this year, we expect to be at 24-thousand active students."

The economy is forcing people to pinch pennies and for some people, higher education is the first the cut out of the family budget. That's why Mayes says enrollment is up at CSU. Mayes says both traditional and non-traditional students are attending online universities because students are able to save money by cutting out room-and-board and commuting expenses.

"You don't have to commute to school anymore, you can fit it into your schedule better and because we're online, we can offer very competitive tuition rates, the books are included so it's less out of pocket expense."

Mayes says Columbia Southern University just recently started accepting and offering financial aid, which has helped increase enrollment.

Columbia Southern University is an accredited online university offering 20 degrees and more than 320 online classes.