The Kansas Board of Regents released primarily figures Thursday regarding fall enrollment. KRPS’s Fred Fletcher-Fierro has more.

Let’s start with the bad news. Systemwide, every level of the Kansas higher education system experienced another semester of declining enrollment.

Overall, registration was down 1% from last year. But that enrollment decline balloons to 9.2% compared to figures from 2017. State university enrollment this fall is down 6%, community college enrollment is off by 15.5%, and technical colleges experienced a decline of nearly 16%.

Closer to home Pittsburg State reported a 2.6% decline in enrollment this fall and a 15.2% drop over the past five years. Southeast Kansas Community Colleges haven’t fared much better. Fort Scott community college enrollment dropped by 8.8% in the past year.

In contrast, Labette posted just a .9% decline. The bright spot, Wichita State University, has experienced an upswing with enrollment growth of over 12% over the past five years and a 5.1% increase this fall. For 89 9 KRPS, I’m Fred Fletcher-Fierro