Emporia State University has an overall downward trend in enrollment, but new student enrollment showed a significant increase. Meanwhile, Flint Hills Technical College is enjoying double-digit enrollment growth, both for headcount and full-time equivalent students.
At Emporia State University, headcount is over 5,300 students, down 5.2 percent from the better than 5,600 students enrolled last fall and down over 7 percent since fall 2017. Full-time-equivalent enrollment is at 3,943, down three percent from last year and 11 percent over the last five years. It’s also the first time Emporia State’s FTE enrollment has gone below 4,000 students since at least 2013.
Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Success Shelly Gehrke says the overall enrollment numbers point out the need for the campus realignment and reinvestment plan now underway.
Reinvestment includes new positions in the art department and a multimillion-dollar renovation to King Hall — as well as over 30 faculty and staff cuts and the drop of the university’s debate program by the end of the academic year.
There is good news for Emporia State when it comes to incoming students. Overall, new student enrollment is up 10 percent — with new freshman students up 12 percent, new transfers up 15 percent and new graduate students up seven percent. Gehrke says ESU is increasing its recruitment with “boots on the ground.” It has also extended in-state tuition rates to students across the continental United States.
At Flint Hills Technical College, there are over 670 FTE students, an increase of almost 13 percent over fall 2021. Overall headcount fared even better at 1,610 students, up almost 18 percent from the 1,365 students last fall. President Caron Daugherty says this is causing administrators to re-emphasize potential facility enhancements.
Daugherty says college staffers have been hard at work recruiting and promoting their programs, and that has led to a 94 percent average placement rate.
