WSU fall enrollment up 4.2%

[RoyalShock]

http://www.kwch.com/content/news/Enrollment-up-42-percent-at-Wichita-State-University-448668283.html

Enrollment at Wichita State for fall semester 2017 is 15,081 students, an increase of 607 students, or 4.2 percent, over fall 2016. The new first-time freshman class of 1,436 students is the largest in school history for the second consecutive year.

Credit hours are only up 0.5%, however.

[RoyalShock]

Wow, KSU lost nearly 1000 students.

[ShockerPhi]

Wow, KSU lost nearly 1000 students.

Whoa. Weren't they the fastest growing university in Kansas recently?

[shocks02]

Moving in the right direction!

[ShockBand]

So when will the merger with WATC take place so we can add those 4000+ to our total? TBH, how many high school graduates should honestly be looking at two year or certificate programs? Many, IMHO. Skilled trades (of which I include coding since you don't need a 4 year CS degree to be a good programmer) need to return to being worthy and respected options for HS graduates. Strides are being made in improving that notion, but we have a ways to go still.

[RoyalShock]

So when will the merger with WATC take place so we can add those 4000+ to our total? TBH, how many high school graduates should honestly be looking at two year or certificate programs? Many, IMHO. Skilled trades (of which I include coding since you don't need a 4 year CS degree to be a good programmer) need to return to being worthy and respected options for HS graduates. Strides are being made in improving that notion, but we have a ways to go still.

Just this morning I saw a headline and byline that said some Kansas companies are considering a move out-of-state due to a lack of technically skilled workers.

[RoyalShock]

Whoa. Weren't they the fastest growing university in Kansas recently?

After WSU's Final Four we had a spike in new freshman. The next year was a net loss. I wonder if this is the same phenomenon?

[WstateU]

I believe we’ll continue to grow enrollment. In Bardo I trust.

Might be worth a listen… Bardo discusses university growth and the difficult task of increasing enrollment.

http://webs.wichita.edu/?u=wsustrategy&p=/2015_faculty_staff_convocation/

P.S. I posted this link before listening/watching the entire presentation. If you care about WSU, take 42 minutes and watch/listen Dr. Bardo's August 18 presentation to facility and staff. It’s easy to see why he gets things done. If nothing else, go to the 33:00 minute mark where he addresses the “old stereotypes”. “We’re not a commuter school”, “we’re not dangerous” and more.

[RoyalShock]

If the info in this Sunflower article is accurate, it seems the enrollment numbers may not be as rosy as WSU would like us to believe.

https://thesunflower.com/20877/news/wsu-reports-largest-student-increase-in-state/

[xazshox]

Nos check

Except for the fact that I checked with the WSU Adminstration with a man who was once a college newspaper editor at Ohio State years ago. He said the Sunflower editor at WSU has a history of making misstatements.

The WSU enrollment figures were also published in the Eagle & were reported to the KS Board of Regents which is not the sort of thing that should be lied about.

You can always check with some of the WSU students, too. I plan to do that very shortly.

[SHOCKvalue]

Except for the fact that I checked with the WSU Adminstration with a man who was once a college newspaper editor at Ohio State years ago. He said the Sunflower editor at WSU has a history of making misstatements.

The WSU enrollment figures were also published in the Eagle & were reported to the KS Board of Regents which is not the sort of thing that should be lied about.

You can always check with some of the WSU students, too. I plan to do that very shortly.

I swear the Eagle article from a few days ago had the caveat too. I know I saw it somewhere before today with Royal's link.

Kind of a disappointing shell game of statistics.

[Kel Varnsen]

I swear the Eagle article from a few days ago had the caveat too. I know I saw it somewhere before today with Royal's link.

It certainly did. It was buried in the story, but it certainly did.

[xazshox]

Caveat?

Caveat? I'm not following the reasoning process here. Have you watched the 42-min video posted 5 days ago? It's all about enrollment & is a very good pitch by Dr Bardo with lots of facts & figures. Early in the pitch, there is a quote by Albert Einstein about how doing the same over and over again is insane. It has to do with recruiting students.

Dr Bardo next pointed out that college enrollment was down all over the US about 5 % in the past 5 yrs and that includes Kansas. So, WSU came up with a plan to do something about it that includes 4 or 5 areas. Bardo goes through all of the areas and gives examples of how their plan is working. One interesting facet that is paying off is the part about how they are recruiting students who live along the I-35 corridor. In the last year, there has been a 38 % increase in students from MO, OK, & Texas. The total for this fall is 228 students, but Bardo figures that is only a start in that one aspect of recruiting.

The overall plan is working. Bardo & his administration want more students living around the campus and interacting with each other. I remember several years ago when Dr Cindy Claycomb put out a survey to alumni & many other people interested in WSU. The survey asked for ideas on how to improve WSU. The main thing I wrote about was to improve campus life. It's happening now!

[RoyalShock]

I was mainly just pointing out that compared to the other state schools, who according to that article do not count students in Badge courses in their enrollment figures, WSU's increase isn't as impressive as it appears.

Maybe those other schools should include them, I don't know. My son, a high school senior, gets all the perks of being an HCC student because his senior English class also counts as English Comp. I. Of course, I am paying for 3 credit hours, so it's not free or discounted.

Speaking of getting credit for college courses through high school classes, if my son enrolls full-time at HCC out of high school he will get all the tuition I paid for those credits back (right now, that would be 9 credit hours). Pretty sweet deal. Do any of the Wichita-area community colleges do that?

[xazshox]

Badge Courses

Bardo mentioned the Badge courses, but I don't remember the nos involved. I don't think it is a big no though. Have you watched the 42-min video yet?