Like many public universities, WKU has shown a decline in enrollment over the past five years. We are not unique. What sets WKU apart is how we are responding by placing our focus on more than just total headcount.
Regionally and nationally, enrollment decline can be attributed to (1) decline in the number of high school graduates, (2) fewer college bound students, (3) increasing costs of higher education, and (4) fewer international students pursuing college in the United States.
To assure financial stability, we must focus on net tuition revenue—the amount of tuition revenue we bring in—and accurately predict that income as a part of our budgeting process. This has become increasingly more important as tuition makes up a larger portion of our revenue picture. With the pool of high school graduates dwindling, we have turned our attention to recruiting from other states as well as reinvigorating our international recruitment efforts. Both of these demographics bring in higher net tuition per student.
It is not enough to put all of our efforts into recruiting new students. It is just as important to retain the students that we have. Significant efforts across campus last year to increase retention, persistence, and graduation rates have resulted in impressive gains. President Caboni shared those results in his campus email last week. Again, the overall increase in retention for first-time, first-year freshmen increased by 3% to 72.9%. This is a huge two-year gain!
Further systematic strategies to strengthen our enrollment profile are being developed as part of a Strategic Enrollment Plan (SEP). This is one of the strategies in the 2018-2028 WKU Strategic Plan, “Climbing to Greater Heights.”
