Number of Kansas engineering grads up, but concerns raised about having to recruit out of state

? An initiative to increase the number of engineering graduates in Kansas is succeeding, officials said Wednesday, but they added that they are increasingly having to go out of state to recruit those students.

“To get the enrollment that we need to meet our goal, we have to go out of state,” said Kansas State University President Kirk Schulz.

Schulz said K-State aggressively recruits students who live in Dallas, Denver and Chicago.

Kansas University officials at Wednesday’s Kansas Board of Regents meeting didn’t have a breakdown of in-state and out-of-state engineering students at KU, but did express other concerns.

Citing a shortage of engineers, the state has committed $105 million to boost the number of engineering graduates in Kansas from 875 per year, which was the baseline in 2008, to 1,365 annually by 2021.

KU, K-State and Wichita State University are now graduating about 1,017 engineers per year, 348 short of the goal, according to a regents report.

KU has made the most progress of the three schools toward reaching its goal, according to figures released by the regents.

KU was graduating 255 in 2008, is now graduating 338, and has a goal of 419.

“We’re doing well,” KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little said. “We are almost reaching our goal before we have full capacity,” she said.

The School of Engineering’s new main campus building is on track to open next summer.

Gray-Little did express concern that KU was retaining only 80 percent of those enrolling in engineering classes from their freshman to sophomore year.

“If we do more to provide structure and support,” the school can improve that retention rate, she said.