(Photo By Flickr User bujcich)

Preliminary numbers show that the University of Illinois system expects to award more than 22,000 degrees this year.

According to The Associated Press & WICS-TV, System President Tim Killeen told the school’s Board of Trustees last week that this year’s total will mark the eighth-straight year with more than 20,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees are awarded. Final totals will be available this summer. Killeen says continued enrollment growth could push the number of degrees to more than 25,000 by the year 2026.

Killeen says Illinois’ alumni network now numbers nearly 750,000, with 400,000 of those living in Illinois.

Data show enrollment at the university’s three campuses in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield was nearly 86,000 students last fall. The Board of Trustees in 2016 set a goal of increasing enrollment to more than 93,600 by the year 2021.