Jackson, director of nursing and patient services at the Thomson Student Health Center, said that the number of students given vaccination this year was far higher than any other previous year.

Reports showed that in the previous year, the numbers of students who received vaccination were quite low i.e. only 236 of 31,080 students. The vaccination was given at the student health center.

But this year, the picture they have in front of them is quite changed, and more numbers of students are receiving vaccination. This year, the university’s health services have decided to provide free vaccinations to students.

Although more students are receiving vaccination this year, Jackson still wants the vaccination rate to go higher for the 31,485 students currently enrolled at USC.

She said “It is really concerning to see a number like that out of our big population. But the number doesn’t count the students getting vaccinated by their physicians or somewhere else”.

A recently conducted survey revealed that low vaccination rate is quite common among students in colleges all over the nation. Another national survey by the American College Health Association showed that 47,246 of 105,107 college students across 174 schools got the flu vaccine in 2014.

In a study published in Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine in 2014, researchers found that 222 of 381 non-vaccinated students had a low perception of personal risk of contracting the flu.