Don’t expect another record increase in enrollment at Kansas University this fall.

KU officials won’t release their official enrollment totals until mid-September. But several administrators are saying they expect enrollment to remain steady compared with last year, which saw a 2.3 percent increase in students, the largest annual jump since 1986.

“I think we’ll hold even,” said Janet Murguia, executive vice chancellor for university relations. “It may be we’ll have a little bit of an increase.”

There were 28,849 students at KU last year, including 26,458 at the Lawrence and Edwards campuses and 2,391 at the KU Medical Center. It was KU’s largest enrollment since 1993 and the fifth-largest in school history.

Despite officials’ prognostications, one indicator shows KU enrollment may dip this fall. The number of new student applications for the fall semester decreased from 9,573 to about 9,500, KU officials said. Last year, the total of applications was about 500 more than had been received in 2001.

Last year, 42.6 percent of students who applied to KU later enrolled. If that percentage holds steady, the freshman class would have 4,047 students, or 27 fewer than last year. But that enrollment percentage has fluctuated from 40 percent to nearly 50 percent during the past 10 years, so the estimate may not be accurate.

Transfer students account for approximately another 1,400 students each fall.

“It’s such a guessing game,” said Lindy Eakin, associate provost. “We just say wait and see.”

Eakin said changes in the way KU handles enrollment and payment — such as a change this year that allows students to pay after the first day of classes without being automatically dropped from the enrollment system — made preliminary estimates difficult to gauge.

Shima Ortiz, a Kingman junior, tries to catch a ball while wearing Fatal

Eakin said KU’s annual budget included a tuition estimate based on enrollment from the previous year. That means any enrollment increase helps KU’s bottom line. Last year’s increase added $1.3 million to KU’s coffers.

“If you’re growing slightly, you’ve got a cushion,” he said.

He said KU also had a contingency for a dip in students.

The central administration holds back about $1.6 million at the start of each fiscal year in case it doesn’t collect as much tuition money as planned.

Lisa Pinamonti, director of admissions and scholarships, said her goal was to keep KU growing, even if it’s slowly.

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“We want to make sure we’re at the same number of students and credit hours, or increasing,” she said.