WKU Continues To Set
Enrollment Record
September 16, 2003
Bowling Green, Ky. - For the third consecutive year, Western Kentucky University has set a record for fall enrollment, according to estimates provided to the Council on Postsecondary Education on Monday.
Total estimated enrollment for fall 2003 is 18,350, Registrar Freida Eggleton said. That number includes 15,820 undergraduate students and 2,530 graduate students. Of that number 13,690 are full-time students and 4,660 are part-time, she said.
Eggleton said the final figure may fluctuate slightly, but the estimate is usually fairly close to the final figure. The final enrollment report to CPE is due Nov. 1.
Fall enrollment has increased every year since 1998 with records being set since 2001 when enrollment topped 16,000.
"Our continued growth is an indication of the quality and value students and parents see in a Western education," WKU President Gary Ransdell said. "We continue to make significant improvements to the physical campus and to the curriculum and these improvements, coupled with the family atmosphere that permeates the Western experience, make Western a university of choice for more and more students."
Luther Hughes, associate vice president for Enrollment Management, said the quality of the students choosing Western continues to rise as well.
"This year's class is composed of students with high levels of academic ability and leadership skills," Dr. Hughes said. "We continue to be the university in Kentucky with the most rapidly growing student population with an increase of more than 3,400 students in the past five years."
Fall enrollment at Western Kentucky University
1990 15,240
1991 15,767
1992 15,750
1993 15,335
1994 14,765
1995 14,721
1996 14,613
1997 14,543
1998 14,882
1999 15,123
2000 15,516
2001 16,579
2002 17,818
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