Wichita State University says it’s fall enrollment is down after record years of growth.

WSU reports 15,500 students for fall classes with a full-time equivalency of 11,042, a drop of 3.1 percent from a year ago.   Fall 2020 enrollment is still the third best for Wichita State in the past 30 years.

WSU Tech had 4,607 students enrolled for fall classes with a full-time equivalency 2,780, which is a 4.2 percent decrease from last year.    Despite the decline, the fall of 2020 is still the second largest fall enrollment in the school’s history.

University officials said the decline was caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the loss of thousands of local jobs, but the percentage drop in full-time equivalency at the schools is better than the average decline for Kansas Board of Regents institutions, which is 3.6 percent for state universities and 8.7 percent for technical colleges.

Acting WSU president Rick Muma said even with the complications of the pandemic, the university is still seeing strong enrollment from students in certain segments of the population, including out-of-state students from the I-35 corridor and first-time-in-college students.