Enrollment at Flint Hills Technical College has fallen off slightly since school started, but still is higher than in any previous year.
As of Monday — the day that enrollments are recorded for funding purposes — the school had 478 students enrolled. That’s down a little from the 493 that Flint Hills had on its opening day, but still well above the next-best “census day” total in 2005, when 431 students were on the books.
Dean of Students Lisa Kirmer said it wasn’t unusual for enrollment to drop a bit after the first day of school. A 2 to 3 percent drop has been normal in recent years, with the exception of 2005 when enrollment rose by a little more than 1 percent.
“We’re pleased with the numbers,” Kirmer told the college’s board of trustees on Monday. “Enrollment is strong and retention is strong.”
For funding purposes, the state counts the “full-time enrollment” as 373 students, which reflects the large number of part-time students that attend the college. That number is down from 383 students at the start of the school year.
Power plant students at the college soon may get to take their two, key professional exams before they graduate.
Power plant technology instructor Merlin Williams said the program would try to work with the Edison Electrical Institute to offer the Power Plant Maintenance Selection System and Plant Operator Selection System tests. High scores make it easier to be employed by a power plant, although each company sets its own thresholds.
If the technical college is able to offer the tests, Williams said, Westar and Wolf Creek Nuclear would have first call on the students since both companies are sponsors of the power plant program. After 30 days, all the names and scores would be released to a national database.
The college already has been working with Westar to incorporate parts of the company’s training manuals into the power plant classes.
“We saw we were teaching a lot of the same material as them, but some we were losing on,” Williams said.
“Like many industrial-type companies, we have a need for highly-trained applicants to become employees,” said Mark Schreiber of Westar. “Partnering with the technical college to provide some of their training and testing ahead of time ... it makes the process much smoother.”
New Record
On Monday, the day that official enrollment numbers are set for funding purposes, the technical college had 478 students — its highest enrollment on record.
Enrollment History
Semester first-day census day percentage change
Fall 2003 406 391 -3.69
Fall 2004 401 393 -1.99
Fall 2005 426 431 +1.17
Fall 2006 415 406 -2.16
Fall 2007 493 478 -3.04
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