Cowley College growing

  Recent Enrollment figures released by the Kansas Board of Regents show Cowley College to be the fastest growing college in the state of Kansas.

Cowley’s enrollment increased a whopping 21.2 percent from the fall 2009 semester to the fall 2010 semester. Cowley had an increase of 847 students to bring its total to 4,850 students that are taking classes at either the school’s main campus in Arkansas City, its Allied Health Center in Winfield, its Mulvane Campus, or online.

“After what happened to us a couple of years ago with the loss of our Southside Education Center in Wichita, this increase in enrollment was a real blessing and a credit to all of our employees,” Cowley president Dr. Patrick J. McAtee said. “When you have success like this it is the result of hard work done by a lot of people.”

Cowley’s growth was not the norm as eight of the 19 Kansas community colleges saw a decrease in enrollment and only one school (Barton County) besides Cowley saw an increase in enrollment of more than 6 percent.

Overall, there was an increase of 3,237 students at the state’s 32 public universities, community colleges, and technical colleges.  This represents a 1.8% systemwide increase for the 2010 fall academic semester over the 2009 fall academic semester.  The systemwide enrollment of 187,398 is reported as of the 20^th day of classes.

At the seven public universities, enrollment was up by 364 students, or 0.4%.  At the 19 community colleges, enrollment was up by 2,609 students, or 3.3%.  At the six technical colleges, enrollment was up by 264 students, or 5.7%.