Higher tuition rates apparently didn’t hurt enrollment at Kansas University this fall.

The number of students at KU will be up slightly when the university announces its fall enrollment next week, sources said.

Official university enrollments in Kansas are based on the number of students on the 20th day of the semester. KU’s 20th day was Thursday.

But a Board of Regents policy forbids universities from releasing enrollment information until all schools have submitted their 20th-day totals. Dick Carter, a regents spokesman, said the office planned to release those numbers Thursday.

Until then, KU officials are honoring the policy not to release enrollment totals. However, Lindy Eakin, vice provost, said he expected KU’s enrollment to be up slightly. David Shulenburger, provost and executive vice chancellor, also alluded to that during a recent University Council meeting.

Kim Wilcox, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, KU’s largest school, said enrollment there also was up. The increase shows that the need-based scholarships KU distributed to help counteract a 25 percent tuition increase worked, Wilcox said.

“Generally when you have a tuition increase, you lose some students,” he said. “This says something about our financial aid plan.”

The number of at least one category of students has decreased this year  international students. Officials say there could be as many as 80 fewer foreign students, partly because of increased visa regulations deterring students from entering the country.

An overall increase could be credited, in part, to the struggling economy, as people return to school to overcome lost jobs or recent graduates return to school to get advanced degrees.

KU’s spring enrollment was up less than 1 percent, from 26,857 in 2001 to 26,894. It was the smallest increase among state universities.

KU’s fall 2001 enrollment dipped slightly, from 28,329 in 2000 to 28,190.

Fall enrollments are generally higher than spring because some students graduate in December, but few students begin in the spring.