Enrollment in University extension courses hit a new high, this year as more than 7,000 men and women from the greater Boston area registered in the program--the largest number since it was established by President A. Laurence Lowell in 1909.

Students working for college credit can count their courses toward the Bachelor of Arts in extension studies, a degree introduced by the Faculty in 1961.

The commission on extension courses, which is sponsored by the Lowell Institute, also offers a program of television courses for credit. WGBH-TV, Channer 2, is presenting "Dynamics of Desegregation" with Dr. Thomas Pettigrew; "Urban Politics" with Robert Wood, associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and "Computer Age Mathematics, Part II" with Francis Scheid, associate professor at Boston University. The continental classroom course "Probability and Statistics" with Charles F. Mosteller, professor of Statistics, is presented by WBZ-TV (Channel 4).

The commission also announced recently that its program of television courses offered for crews of the Polaris fleet will continue with the eighth presentation of "The Anatomy of Revolution" by Crane Brinton.

Five crews have already taken Scheid's "Computer Age Mathematics, Part I." The television courses are viewed by the crews while on patrol, and men registered in them for credit attend classroom sessions and take examinations at the New London submarine base.

Enrollment in extension courses passed the 2,000 mark ten years ago and since then has more than tripled.