Yale University has plans to expand its undergraduate programs by 15 percent, to about 6,000 more students. The new colleges will be built just north of the Grove Street Cemetery which would help connect the science facilities to the rest of the campus and will be open in 2013.

The New York Times reports that in recent decades, the undergraduate enrollment has fluctuated between 5,150 and 5,350.

The Yale endowment, which has led the academic world in investment performance over the past decade, posted a 28 percent return for the fiscal year that ended in June 2007. Under pressure from Congress and some donors to use more of its multibillion-dollar investment gains, Yale announced in January that it would spend an additional $307 million next year in income from its endowment.

According to Chronicle.com, to pay for the expansion, the university is also increasing the goal of its Yale Tomorrow fund-raising campaign by $500-million, to $3.5-billion.

Pointing to the large number of talented applicants that Yale turns away each year, Mr. Levin noted that the university’s last significant increase came with the admission of women, in 1969, and that undergraduate enrollment had remained at about 5,200 since 1978.

Yale’s president, Richard C. Levin, is quoted commenting on the importance of expanding the campus.

“The new colleges have the potential of making the whole campus seem smaller, more effectively linking Science Hill with the historic center,” Levin said.

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