Kansas Regents Fall Enrollment Numbers Released

While enrollment numbers are a mixed bag across Kansas, two Saline County schools continue to show progress.

The Kansas Board of Regents released its Fall Preliminary Enrollment Summary from 2014-2019 on Wednesday. The numbers show that both Kansas State University Polytechnic and Salina Area Technical College continue to build on enrollment success.

The Kansas State University Polytechnic Campus is building on its enrollment progress from the previous year with another growing freshman class as well as a rise in transfer students.

Full-time equivalency and headcount at Kansas State Polytechnic are up from 2018. Total student enrollment is 642 — an increase of 71 students from last year, or 12%. Full-time equivalency, or FTE, is up nearly 9% to 516. The Kansas Board of Regents calculates full-time equivalency by dividing the total number of undergraduate credit hours taken in a semester by 15.

This is the second year in a row the freshman class has grown. The class of 144 students is up 23% from 2018. The campus also experienced a jump in new Wildcats in the transfer category, with transfer students at 64, up 42%.

The professional pilot program has seen a 20% increase in new students from last year, with the flight school portion of the degree at full capacity for the second year in a row. The aviation maintenance management program grew by 150% as well.

And, for the first time in five years, on-campus residency is at capacity, another sign of growth at Kansas State Polytechnic.

Meanwhile, in a year when most of the state’s colleges and universities saw enrollment declines, Salina Area Technical College reported a modest increase.

According to data collected for the Kansas Board of Regents on the 20th day of fall classes, Salina Tech has 791 students, up four from the fall semester of 2018 – an increase of 0.51 percent. In terms of full-time equivalents, enrollment rose from 435 to 436 – an increase of 0.19 percent. FTE is calculated by taking the total number of credit hours students are enrolled in and dividing by 15.

“These are not the kind of enrollment gains we’ve seen in recent years,” said Salina Tech President Greg Nichols. “But considering that most Kansas colleges are experiencing enrollment declines, we’re at least holding our own.”

Enrollment in the state’s four-year and universities rose 0.18 percent compared to the fall semester of 2018. Community colleges saw a decline of 3.08 percent, and technical college enrollment rose 5.67 percent.

Over the past five years, university enrollment in Kansas has dropped 0.57 percent, while community college enrollment has declined 9.45 percent. In that same period, technical college enrollment has risen 42.48 percent. Salina Tech’s enrollment over the past five years has risen 69.38 percent.

To see where all public Kansas colleges stack up, see their official numbers below:

Fall_2019_Preliminary_Enrollment_Report-KBOR