K-State enrollment dips below 20,000 for first time since 1988

Preliminary enrollment numbers released by the Kansas Board of Regents Thursday showed a 2.5 percent overall decrease at Kansas State University.

Total enrollment is 19,722 for the fall semester, down 507 students from the previous year’s mark of 20,229. It marks the first time since 1988 that enrollment has dipped below 20,000. It’s the eighth year of declines at K-State since enrollment peaked at 24,766 in 2014, representing an over 20 percent decrease over that period. (Historical K-State enrollment data from 1863 to 2021 are shared below.)

Earlier this week, at the Intergovernmental Luncheon, K-State President Richard Linton noted the census includes about 15,000 undergraduates down from about 20,000 eight years ago. That also includes about 2,500 students who aren’t physically in Manhattan because they are attending school online.

“When you really look at it, at the end of the day, we’ve gone from about 20,000 undergraduates to about 12,500 or 13,000 students. We need to be better,” he said.

Manhattan campus enrollment is down 4.4 percent, but continues to see growth at its other campuses. K-State Salina, K-State Olathe and Global Campus saw enrollment increases of 7.3 percent, 2.4 percent and 5.8 percent respectively.

Overall, enrollment at Kansas colleges and universities was down 1 percent from the previous year. State universities saw a 1.5 percent overall decline, with only Wichita State seeing positive growth of over 5 percent.

Manhattan Area Technical College was up 4.7 percent in enrollment with 917 students enrolled this fall compared to 876 the year before. It’s the highest enrollment there since 2017.

In a Thursday release, K-State touted a 2.1 percent increase in new freshman enrollment across all campuses, including a 2.9 percent increase on the Manhattan campus.