The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) has released data showing growth in both enrollment and credential production. During its most recent business meeting in Frankfort, the council reported that enrollment grew in all sectors from fall 2022 to fall 2023.
Total degree and credential production has increased nine percent in the last five years. Officials said undergraduate credentials have increased largely due to a surge in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, growing seven percent over the last five years.
Travis Muncie is Executive Director of Data Research and Advanced Analytics at CPE. He said this growth put KCTCS above their original pre-covid numbers. He added they have been seeing good indicators for other post-secondary schools.
“We’re seeing some really good signs, so one leading indicator that we look at is first-time students, and at both KCTCS and the four-year publics we saw a pretty substantial increase in the number of first-time college students kind of entering the post-secondary pipeline,” said Muncie.
There has also been a steady increase in underrepresented minority student enrollment.
Muncie said four-year public institutions have done a good job prioritizing equality in their schools.
“What you’re seeing there is a lot of intentionality you know with kind of what we have or what we’ve done with the incentives of the diversity and especially with the performance funding model to where institutions are actually incentivized,” said Muncie.
Muncie said the increase in enrollment and credentials could help the CPE achieve its goal of having 60 percent of students receive degrees by 2030. He added there is still a lot of work to do, but he is proud of the progress made.