ENROLLMENT REPORT SHOWING PROGRAM ENROLLMENTS FOR THE PAST THREE (3) YEARS

Pentecost Biblical Seminary’s (PBS) vision is: To be an internationally-recognized graduate theological institution and a center for diaspora Pentecostal studies that trains theologically astute and Holy Spirit-filled leaders in order to transform the world for Jesus Christ. To this end, PBS seeks to develop graduates to: first, understand the history and cultures of the world and to adapt to a changing world; Second, appreciate Christian theology to be able to articulate biblical knowledge in ministering to a local and more diverse church. Lastly, demonstrate critical and analytical thinking skills in understanding the principles of Pentecostal spirituality. Specifically, PBS strives to be diverse, inclusive, and equitable through, the following:

• Enrolling more female faculty, staff, and learners into the program offerings of the Seminary.
• Ensuring that students of other ethnic/racial origins and single marital statuses are targets during the enrollment in the Seminary.
• Including stakeholders from the Latin America to enhance language and locational dimension for academic success.
• Introducing systems to capture data on first generation students, veterans, undocumented, economically-disadvantaged, and students with disabilities; as well as income distribution.
• Maintaining standardized class size to facilitate effective faculty-learner interaction. Currently, the program to student ratio is 1:23 and each teacher handles 8 students on average.
• Permitting the deployment of faculty with terminal degrees to teach the Master’s degree program for academic rigor based on Pentecostal doctrine and theology.
• Promoting courses and programs to equip and attract the younger (18 years and below) and older (65 years and above) generations of Pentecostal heritage to ensure inter-generational equity.
• Providing a pathway through a master’s degree course offering for most of our ministers who come into ministry with at least a bachelor’s degree.

PROGRAMS ENROLLMENT (2021 TO 2023)

Pentecost Biblical Seminary (PBS) continues to attract students from the clergy and laity. The proposal is for the introduction of a Master’s in Pastoral Ministry. While the newly-called ministers of the Church of Pentecost U.S.A., Inc. and their spouses enroll in the Ministerial Formation program; several officers and members have been enrolled in the Youth/PENSA, Women, Children, and Men ministries programs to be equipped in response to church’s Global Vision 2023 and the U.S.A. Vision 2026.  Table 1 below shows the three-year programs enrollment from 2021 to 2023 for the current program offerings, as follows:

Table 1: Three-Year Program Enrollment Numbers (2021 to 2023)
Programs	Male	%	Female	%	TOTAL	%	Average
Ministerial Formation	39	23	24	10	63	16	21
Lay Leadership	66	39	8	3	74	19	25
Youth/PENSA	45	26	36	16	81	20	27
Spanish	11	6	0	0	11	3	4
Women’s Ministry	0	0	42	18	42	10	14
Men’s Ministry	5	3	0	0	5	1	2
Children	5	3	119	52	124	31	41
TOTAL	171	100	229	100	400	100	133
Source: Extracted from Classe365 NOTE: The head count is taken as of the close of week 1 of classes.

The above table shows the enrollment facts and report at a glance. Total number of students for the 3-year period is 400, made up of 171 males (43%) and 229 female (57%) students. The average annual enrollment into the programs for the three-yearly period is 133. The student enrollment has been increasing from 2021 to 2023. From 42 students in the Ministerial formation and Lay leadership programs in 2021 to 85 in 2022 for three programs, including the Youth/PENSA; then, rising to 273 in 2023 for seven programs (Children, Men’s, Women’s, Youth and PENSA ministries; Spanish, Lay leadership, and Ministerial formation).

The Ministerial formation and Lay leadership programs make up 35 percent of the population of students; the Youth/Pentecost Students and Associates (PENSA) program was introduced in 2022 and make up 20 percent of the population; the Children’s ministry cover 31 percent of the student population; and the rest of the programs (Spanish Outreach, Children’s, Men’s, and Women’s ministries) introduced in 2023 comprised of 14 percent.

The female population has increased in recent times because of inclusion of the Ministerial Formation for Women program for Ministers’ wives; as well as, the introduction of the Women and Children ministries programs. The latter is dominated by females. The break-down of the Enrollments according to programs is provided below:

MINISTERIAL FORMATION PROGRAM

Years	Male	Female	Total	%
2021	5	5	10	16
2022	11	11	22	35
2023	23	8	31	49

The enrollment of the Ministerial formation program has increased from 10 to 31, however, the 2023 enrollment alone is about 50 percent of the total enrollment over the period.

LAY LEADERSHIP PROGRAM

Years	Male	Female	Total	%
2021	26	6	32	43
2022	0	0	0	0
2023	40	2	42	57

A total of 74 students enrolled for the Lay leadership program, with 57 percent of the enrollment associated with 2023 but the program is dominated by males.

YOUTH/PENSA PROGRAM

Years	Male	Female	Total	%
2021	0	0	0	0
2022	32	31	63	78
2023	13	5	18	22

The total of 81 student enrolled for the Youth/PENSA for 2022 and 2023 but it is skewed towards 2022 (78 percent).

SPANISH OUTREACH PROGRAM

Years	Male	Female	Total	%
2021	0	0	0	0
2022	0	0	0	0
2023	11	0	11	100

Only 11 male students have enrolled in the Spanish Offerings in 2023.

MEN’s and WOMEN’s MINISTRIES PROGRAMS

Years	Male	%	Female	%
2021	0	0	0	0
2022	0	0	0	0
2023	5	100	42	100

While the enrollment of the Men’s Ministry program attracted 5 students, 42 students enrolled in the Women’s ministry program in 2023.

CHILDREN MINISTRY PROGRAM

Years	Male	Female	Total	%
2021	0	0	0	0
2022	0	0	0	0
2023	5	119	124	100

Female students constituted majority (96 percent) of students enrolled in the Children’s ministry program.

The demographic narrative of the PBS for 2020 to 2022 is provided below:

RACE AND GENDER

Majority (99 percent) of students identified as Black/African American and 1 percent of Spanish origin.

AGE DISTRIBUTION

All students fall within the range of ages 19 and 65. Suggesting that there are no students above 65 and below the age 18. While 78 percent of the students fell between ages 19 and 44; another 21 percent fell between ages 45 and 65.

EMPLOYMENT STATUS

All enrolled students come to the PBS as gainfully-employed. While many work for the Church of Pentecost (North America) as full-time ministers, others work in the secular world in different fields of human endeavor. The employment rate is 100 percent.

MARITAL STATUS

Most of the students (90 percent) reported being married and 10 percent not married.

LEVEL OF EDUCATION

The proposed Master of Pastoral Ministry program will have 100 percent doctoral faculty. The level of education for the faculty of PBS is discussed below. While over two-thirds (70 percent) possess at least a master’s degree; about one-third (30 percent) possess other qualification. In specific terms, about 31 percent hold terminal degrees and about 13 percent are at various levels of completion in the doctoral degrees. Twenty-eight (28 percent) have at least a master’s degree.

INCOME DISTRIBUTION

 The income distribution variable is not adequately captured in the PBS data capturing system now but the new learning management system will be able to capture this information in future.

LANGUAGE
The language offerings are two-fold-English and Spanish. All but one program is offered in English. The mandate of PBS covers the Canada, South America, and the Caribbeans, however, the Spanish and Portuguese languages are the official languages of some of these locations. The Church of Pentecost has branches in the following countries- Brazil, Guyana, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Guam, Panama, Argentina, Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Jamaica, and many more.

PBS intends to translate critical teaching materials and key academic resources to leverage our Spanish-speaking faculty, ministers, and laity to deliver lectures in Spanish in the short-term and Portuguese in the medium to long-term.

LOCATION

Location, Ninety percent (90%) of students are from the United States of America, except for the Ministerial Formation Cohort, which has 56 percent and 40 percent for United States and Canada respectively. Currently, the American student population is drawn from 11 States, including-Ohio, New York, Maryland, Georgia, New Jersey, Texas, New England, Colorado, North Carolina, Virginia, and Illinois. The South American/Caribbean population of students is drawn from Guyana and Dominican Republic and account for less than 10 percent of the student population.

Biblical Seminary is not currently accredited and plans to submit an initial application for Applicant Status to the Commission on Accreditation of the Association for Biblical Higher Education in Fall 2023.

GRADUATION RATE

The graduation rate of the Diploma in Ministerial Formation program is close to 100 percent because only newly called ministers, who are full-time employees of the church, and their spouses become automatic students. In 2023, ninety-three (93.7) percent of the Lay Leadership program students graduated during the 7^th Graduation ceremony of Pentecost Biblical Seminary (PBS).

The majority of graduating students come from the Lay Leadership Program. The percentage of students graduating from the Lay Leadership program in 2023 was 100 percent. The proportion of graduating Lay Leadership has been on the increases over time. For example, in 2020, the graduation rate was 91percent, 78 percent for 2021, and 64 percent for 2022. Moreso, the church in Canada enrolled more lay leaders in 2021 under a Strategic Ministerial Formation program that was intended to prepare more candidates for possible entry into full-time ministry. 

Overall, about 35 percent of the total graduating students have done so under the Ministerial Formation program from 2020 to 2023. PBS is poised to graduate a lot of students from the Youth/PENSA cohort to prepare the youth for work of ministry and to transform them for every sphere of life.

• RETENTION RATE

The student retention rate for PBS is 96.20 percent in 2023 as compared to 93.7 percent in 2022. Pentecost Biblical Seminary (PBS) considers students retention rate as a necessary and sufficient condition for academic success due to their inter-connectedness. Retention rate can drive the survival of the institution in attracting the right learners and also stimulate student engagement towards the achievement of academic objectives. Likewise, the student dropout rate has the tendency of affecting the niche the seminary has carved for itself in the marketplace. In this regard, the aim of PBS is to ensure the motivation of students throughout the academic journey.