Wichita State President John Bardo has a vision of WSU for the near future to accommodate 20,000 and more students. But exactly how far away is that vision?

With the average enrollment for the last eight years between 14,000 to 15,000 students, WSU surpassed the latter in the fall of 2011 when 15,100 students enrolled for classes.

However, in the fall of 2012, the Institutional Research of WSU recorded the enrollment number falling below the 15,000 mark once more with an enrollment of 14,898 students.

There is however an upward enrollment trend, said Joseph Kleinsasser, WSU Director of News and Media Relations. Kleinsasser said that although the enrollment headcount is down from last year, students enrolled in more credit hours for the fall 2012 semester.

“The credit hours for fall 2011 totaled 161,810 and for the fall of 2012, the credit hours totaled 161,843,” Kleinsasser said.

Vice President for Campus Life and University Relations Wade Robinson said he thinks the increase in credit hours means more students want to finish their degrees sooner.

WSU Institutional Research said the greatest number of students enrolled at WSU was 17,419 in 1989 with 157,524 credit hours taken.

Bo Sun, a specialist for the Institutional Research, said the headcount numbers for fall 2012 show that 81 percent of the 14,898 students who were enrolled for both full-time and part-time are from the state of Kansas and 9,466 students (63 percent) are from Sedgwick County.

“Last year we tried new incentives offered to incoming high school students, and that may have played a role,” Robinson said.

Breaking the numbers down, there are 8,670 undergraduate students registered as full-time students. There are 1,263 graduate students registered as full-time students.

International students pursuing bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees make up 8.9 percent of the student population, about 1,500 students, and 100 percent of them are full-time students.

Robinson recognizes that college is not for all high school graduates. A technical or trade school might be better for some.

“However if a student is looking at getting their bachelor’s, master’s or professional degree, Wichita State is the place to go,” said Robinson.