RINDGE — Franklin Pierce University starts its fall semester Tuesday with the largest group of new students in the institution's 50-year history.

The 616 new students include 550 freshmen, 56 transfer students and 10 part-time students.

University President Dr. James Birge and Director of Admissions Linda Quimby said Friday a combination of several new offerings at the school have attracted many of the students. The school offers integrated general and liberal education curriculum, a new health science major, a new three-year business degree, the newly built health sciences and athletic training center, and three new athletic programs. And it doesn't hurt that the school has decided to keep tuition costs flat for two of the last three years.

“A senior this year will have seen a 4.3 percent (tuition) increase over their time here. There aren't that many institutions that can demonstrate that,” Birge said.

According to the school's website, the cost to attend the school in 2012-13 is $41,310, which includes room and board.

Birge and Quimby said enrollment was declining even before the recession hit in 2008. The boom in enrollment reflects years of finding new and better ways to meet the needs of students. The fruits of many of these labors are rolling out for the first time this fall.

To best prepare students for the workforce, the new curriculum marries traditional liberal arts courses with professional preparation courses.

Reducing a business degree to a three-year program is also new and reduces the cost for students. It also allows them to complete a master's degree in business within four years.

The new health science major has also had an impact on enrollment.

“One of the things we were surprised by … A little more than a year ago when we started planning for this we thought, 'this will help us attract 30 new students.' Right now we're at 75,” Birge said.

As with the other changes at the university, establishing the health science major is a response to the current job market.

Many students are interested in the fields they could pursue with a health science degree, Birge said, such as becoming a physical therapist or a physician assistant.

More importantly, there is more demand from the job market in the health science fields.

Quimby added that Franklin Pierce also has a new program that guides Franklin Pierce students into graduate programs for physical therapy and physician assistant.

“Our undergraduate students now have a clearer pathway to those very competitive graduate programs also offered by Franklin Pierce,” she said.

Three new sports — women's ice hockey, men's and women's track and field and sprint football — have also driven the enrollment spike, attracting 130 new students, Birge said.

Supporting the health science major and new sports is the newly constructed Dr. Arthur and Martha Pappas Health Sciences and Athletic Training Center.

The two-story, 9,000-square-foot building is going to provide the academic space needed for the University's new health science program as well as expand athletic training facilities.

The new facilities and programs are what led to the scene in the dorms Saturday, as Bryana Harron of Woburn, Mass., decided her hockey sticks would be best stored underneath her bed.

Not long after, her roommate and teammate Emily McKenna of Dedham, Mass., arrived with hockey sticks in hand.

Both freshmen are members of the university's new women's ice hockey team. Both said the hockey team played a big factor in their choice to enroll at Franklin Pierce. The beautiful campus was also a factor, they said.

“The hockey coach came to a bunch of my games and I decided to look at it,” Harron said.

Harron said she was also drawn in by the new health science major. “I'm going in undecided, but I'm thinking health sciences.”

Her mother, Patty Harron, said, “This is my third child and we've probably looked at a hundred schools between all of them. With three children, I had never ever looked here before. We're 90 minutes away. When we walked on campus we were like 'wow,' and everyone was really nice.”

mpierce@newstote.com