The celebration can officially begin: Enrollment at the University of Nebraska is up again, now at its highest mark since 1996, NU announced Monday.

Campus leaders had been predicting the surge since summer, and official numbers confirm a 2.7 percent enrollment increase since last fall. A total of 47,058 students are now enrolled across NU’s four campuses and the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture in Curtis.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln contributed the largest increase — 3.9 percent — and is welcoming its largest freshman class since 1982.

Enrollment increased 1.9 percent at the NU Medical Center, 1.8 percent at the Omaha campus and 0.2 percent in Kearney.

Those figures are signs of encouragement for NU officials, who have long worked to reverse an enrollment dip that plagued the university during the 1990s.

“The university has prioritized recruitment in word and in action,” said David Burge, associate dean of admissions at UNL.

“I believe our reputation is catching up with us.”

At UNL, heavier out-of-state recruitment and stepped-up efforts to draw Nebraska’s brightest students account for much of the increase, Burge said.

With a decline in the number of Nebraska high school graduates, recruitment teams have set their sights on Kansas City, Chicago and the Twin Cities, making personal visits to high schools and advertising in local papers to make UNL’s name known to ambitious students.

Those efforts appear to be paying off. This fall’s increase in out-of-state freshmen, about 150, represents nearly half of UNL’s total freshman increase of 386.

UNL keeps careful watch of its own backyard, too. Recruiters make contacts with Nebraska students as early as eighth grade and, by the time students are seniors, they’re receiving weekly correspondence from UNL, Burge said.

Burge’s staff also spends significant time at local high schools, trying to lure the highest-achieving and minority students to campus and building relationships with guidance counselors.

This Saturday, in fact, 17 counselors from around the state will attend the much-hyped NU-Southern Cal football game, courtesy of the university.

Not a bad perk at all from an admissions team eager to keep its numbers strong.

“We really roll out the red carpet,” Burge said.

UNL’s new freshman class also is its brightest and most racially diverse in school history: Its average ACT score, 25, breaks last year’s record of 24.9, and its share of minority students rose from 8.8 percent last fall to 9.1 percent.

Most important, it’s just plain bigger, and that’s relief to Chancellor Harvey Perlman, who said in last month’s State of the University address the enrollment surge will generate enough tuition revenue to spare UNL from making tough budget cuts this year.

“We are heartened by the turnaround that our enrollment has seen over the last few years,” Perlman said.

Still, NU can’t afford to rest on its laurels, officials said.

Demographers predict the number of high school graduates in Nebraska won’t pick up until at least 2012, Burge said. That means NU must continue its focus on out-of-state recruitment and draw more Nebraska students to higher education.

Only 27 percent of the state’s residents have bachelor’s degrees or higher, despite Nebraska’s high school graduation rate of 84 percent.

NU President J.B. Milliken believes that’s far too low.

Education leaders must do a better job of assisting students in their college planning to keep Nebraska competitive, Milliken said.

“It’s critically important that we increase the college-going rate,” he said. “It’s about providing more information to students — usable information, actionable information.

“College is possible if you prepare.”

Reach Melissa Lee at 473-2682 or mlee@journalstar.com.