Updated: Despite COVID-19 challenges, University of Kentucky boasts record enrollment
Despite national and local weariness over a pandemic-plagued fall semester, preliminary data shows that the University of Kentucky was able to grow its enrollment this fall.
UK’s enrollment is at 31,057 students — a 2 percent increase over last year, the university said. Record retention of previously enrolled students powered the increase as freshmen enrollment declined for the COVID-19-affected new term.
The second-year retention rate, the percentage of students who returned for a second year, is currently the highest it’s been in at least this decade. About 86.4 percent of last year’s record 5,348-strong freshmen class has returned. In comparison, the fall 2015 retention rate was about 82 percent. In 2010, it was below 81.5 percent.
The enrollment figures will not become final until October when the university reports the data to the state.
Over the summer, university officials predicted a drop among this year’s freshmen class and a drop in expected revenue. Pre-pandemic estimates called for a 5,700-member freshmen class, but after COVID-19 sent the university online in the spring and generated uncertainty about the fall, officials reduced their estimate to 4,500. So far, UK is above its pandemic estimate at 4,961.
“The (enrollment) numbers are an important indication of where we are as a first-choice academic institution,” UK President Eli Capilouto said in a press release. “Students and families — even in a time of so much anxiety and uncertainty — are choosing the University of Kentucky because we place students and their success at the center of everything that we do. A college education will be even more important in the future, as our economy changes, requiring more skills and more nimbleness.”
The enrollment boost will not “provide any substantive budget relief for the institution,” the university said. Officials estimated a cap on tuition and mandatory fees this fall cost the university about $5 million in revenue. UK has also spent millions preparing the campus for in-person instruction amid a global pandemic. Last week, the head of facilities said she wasn’t sure exactly how much the university had expended on preparing the socially distant campus.
About 11 percent of the revenue generated for the university’s $4.4 billion budget came from tuition. Eric Monday, the executive vice president for finance and administration, told the Board of Trustees in June that extra revenue from a larger-than-expected freshmen class would go toward an emergency contingency fund that university has previously used — along with staff reductions and retirement benefit cuts — to bridge a $72 million budget shortfall that was largely created by the expected drop in freshmen enrollment.
But UK spokesperson Jay Blanton said Friday that the extra revenue from the larger-than-expected freshman class did not go to the contingency fund, as those extra funds were offset by losses incurred from moves like capping tuition.
Previously, the university lost $62 million in revenue in the spring while converting to largely online instruction. The largest chunk of that money — $14 million — left the university’s coffers in partial refunds of student dining and housing costs.
Black, Hispanic enrollments jump. International students decline
Compared to last fall, the university has also boosted enrollment among some minority groups.
Black student enrollment — which has declined in recent years — has increased for the first time since 2016. Last fall, there were 1,978 Black students. This year, UK enrolled 2,119.
The jump in Black student enrollment likely comes from better retention, data provided by the university shows. Overall, the university added fewer Black freshmen this year — 356 — than last year — 372. In this year’s smaller-than-usual freshmen class, Black students made up 7.2 percent of the class — only a 0.2 percentage point increase from the previous year.
Hispanic or Latino student enrollment increased from 1,453 students in 2019 to 1,603 this year. Enrollment among Asian students increased from 1,095 to 1,125. Enrollment from indigenous peoples and native Pacific islanders remained statistically similar.
The only significant decrease was a near 20 percentage point drop among international students. So-called nonresident alien students fell from 1,545 to 1,237.
Blanton said there’s not a single reason for the drop in international students. Competition from other universities and travel restrictions brought on by the pandemic are factors, he said.
“Our applications remain strong in this area, a reflection of interest in UK,” Blanton said. “And, underscoring that is the fact that a number of international students are deferring their admission for a semester or year, a sign that they want to come, and will come to Lexington as soon as they are able. Moreover, we believe our undergraduate decline among international students will be less than a number of places, resulting from strong efforts here through our Global Wildcats program, for example, which has created a way for incoming undergrad freshmen to begin at UK virtually from their home countries.”
This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 11:49 AM.