There was some good news about Wichita State University’s fall enrollment numbers, including gains in out-of-state students, incoming freshmen and the honors program. Clearly, WSU can and does compete well in certain areas. But WSU’s overall enrollment has dipped for three years running, in contrast to its sister regents institutions. There’s no arguing with some of the reasons WSU officials site for the decline, including post-Sept. 11 losses of foreign and part-time students. But how much longer will those reasons explain it all? Officials surely realize that the nontraditional students served so well by WSU can only handle so many annual tuition hikes.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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13 Comments
Well here is a tip for WSU….For a school that supposedly has roughly 1/3 of the students as non-traditional, returning adults they don’t cater to this demographic very well at all…They have pulled all the classes for the Southside center and reduced the number of night classes offered. It is practically impossible to complete a degree by only going to classes offered after 5pm The college towns are going to continue to attract kids but who are more intrested the experience…meanwhile wsu enrollment will be directly tied to how well they meet the needs of industry in wichita for highly trained workers….note that the school of engineering at wsu is doing just fine.
The first thing to do is get rid of out of state tuitions to increase competitive position and encourage students to come to Wichita from out of Kansas and the U.S. Tuition penalties have only caused trouble over the years.
I thought tuition was going up a little crazy when I went there in the late 90’s. When parking was free and text books were under $70 a book.
By the time I graduated, tuition went up around 30%, parking cost $50 a semester, and text books started to become $100 a book. *Ouch*
You’re lucky to have WSU.The small town I live in has a community college, which is great, except for the fact that if you’re not going to be a cop, firefighter, or nurse, there’s practically nothing you can get any degree in.
Which brings up the adults returning to school issue. If you’re working an average job you make too much money to get a grant, but not enough money to live in a decent way. And as pointed out, not much is offered in night classes.
If you can get the basics at half the cost at a cummunity college and then transfer, why start at WSU? Many companies are finding that an associate degree and work eperience is more valuable to them than a 4 (now closer to 6) year degree.
Tracy, There are student loans that doen’t have to start being repaid until 6 months after you graduate. It was the only way I could pay for school. It took awhile to get them paid off, but it was worth it to get an education.
WSU does not serrve non-traditional students well. They have never been interested in doing so, either.
Exactly right, DR and Steven E.
They could increase their enrollment probably 15 percent just by offering mainly 3 hour classes instead of 1 hour classes 3 times a week.
Non-trads don’t feel like driving 20 minutes each way for a 55 minute class, duh.
They might also consider that fact that since they offer practically no Ph.D’s, their importance as a “research college” is practically nil and they should focus on undergraduate education.
BUT, that would involve changing the status quo, wouldn’t it?
G, You’re right. WSU has not adapted well to the needs of non-trads.
Plus, enrollment has declined since football ended in 1986 and the news about violence in the area (the shooting after the 4th of July celebration on campus) did not help matters.
A lot of the tuition increases are due to the fact that the State determined that the public universities would receive less funding and would need to depend more on tuition for their revenue.
The lack of safety on the WSU campus is a continuing perception problem for them. However, WSU has data suggesting that their university is quite safe — which I think it is, but bad reputations die hard.
If you think tuition has gone up in recent years – hold on to your hats if TABOR is passed. If that happens, these will be remembered as the good-ole cheap days.
I agree, the campus is safe. The shooting on-campus, the problems at the African-American arts event some time back, and gang activity news, contributed to the negative views people in towns outside of Wichita have of WSU.
Annual tuition at WSU comes to about $4500. That is a lot better than $25,000 at the big private schools.