The Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR) released the 2023 enrollment report last Wednesday for all higher education institutions in Kansas. Last fall (2022), Emporia State’s enrollment for first-time students increased about 12 percent from the previous year.
ESU’s reported 2022 first-time enrollment for the fall semester was 537 students. There were also 288 transfer students coming from other institutions rather than straight out of high school. Both statistics are an increase of the 2021 enrollment numbers.
Right before the Workforce Management Framework, allowing for the firing of 33 professors, was passed in September, ESU President Ken Hush sent a campus-wide email stating reasons for the university restructuring that would follow in the coming months. One reason stated was enrollment trends, making this year’s report of increased significance.
“Enrollment in four-year institutions has been in consistent decline for more than five years both nationally and at Emporia State University,” Hush stated in the email.
Hush also referenced the COVID-19 pandemic in the email and how it furthered the university’s struggle. The Workforce Management Framework also references the pandemic as rationale.
In the fall of 2020, ESU had 565 first-time students enrolled, 28 more than the fall of 2022. While the first-time student count dropped since right before the pandemic, the transfer students increased by 23 in the same time frame.
Gwen Larson, director of media relations and internal communication and spokesperson for the university, said in an email that the enrollment report is indicative of a “concerning national trend of declining enrollment across universities,” something ESU has also seen since 2006.
The total headcount for fall 2022 at ESU was 5,324, a decrease of 291 students from the fall before, according to the KBOR data website.
“This shifting enrollment trend at four-year higher education institutions was one of the main drivers for the campus wide assessment that began in spring 2022,” Larson said in the email. “Other data points assessed were student interest, Kansas workforce needs and national job growth projections.”
Almost all of the state universities saw an increase in the enrollment from 2021-2022. ESU’s first-time enrollment increased by 56 students, being the third most increased university behind the University of Kansas and Kansas State University.
Some optimism was voiced in last Wednesday’s KBOR meeting when Elaine Frisbie, KBOR vice president of finance and administration, presented the enrollment report.
“Last fall we did see an uptick in our headcount enrollments at our six state universities, both for the research and the regional universities,” Frisbie. “So we see some good points here.”
