The University of Texas kept up its graduation rates but fell slightly behind on enrollment this year, according to recently released figures.

UT's class of 2019 had a graduation rate of 69.8%, the same as 2018. Although university officials praised the steady figures, they still fell narrowly short of the school's goal to increase its four-year graduation rate to 70%.

Still, UT has shown marked improvement in its graduation rates in recent years, growing steadily since 2011 when it had a graduation rate of 52%. The school attributed its increase to a number of campus-wide student success programs that began in 2013.

The number of first-generation student graduates fell slightly over the past year, from 61.5% in 2018 to 60.1% in 2019, but the numbers are still an improvement from five years ago, when first-generation graduation rates hovered around 43%.

While UT's graduation rates held mostly steady this year, its enrollment did not, dropping minimally. The school reported a total enrollment of 51,090 students this fall, a 1.4% drop from 51,832 students in 2018.

In recent years, UT has granted automatic admission to freshman who were in the top 7% of their high school class. But for fall 2019, the school only admitted the top 6% of students, which could account for the slight decrease in enrollment.

Enrollment at UT is also slightly more diverse this year than in past years, with the overall percentage of black students rising slightly from 4.8% to 4.9%. The Hispanic student population rose from 20.9% to 21.7%, and the overall Asian undergraduate population rose from 22% to 22.6%.