Has Missouri Western turned the corner?

In higher education, enrollment isn’t anyone’s favorite conversation topic.

The last few enrollment reports have been painful affairs for Missouri Western State University, including the most recent one from the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education. It showed a 25% drop in total headcount enrollment and a 30% decline in full-time equivalent (FTE) enrollment since 2020. MoWest’s headcount enrollment, including part-time and full-time students, now stands at 3,674. The FTE number, often used for budgeting and resource allocation, is 2,484.

You can always deflect and say everyone is in the same boat. All universities are competing for a smaller pool of college-age students. Even Northwest Missouri State University, which saw a significant enrollment increase over the last five years, dropped 4.4% in 2025 (a loss of 406 total students compared to 52 at MoWest).

But enrollment is the ultimate measure of how the public values a certain institution. Until you’re willing to pay $300 a credit hour, how much do you really like a particular school? Money talks.

If you listen closely, we could suggest that this year’s enrollment report said something encouraging. It shows that MoWest’s enrollment has stabilized on a year-over-year basis, with a 1.4% drop in headcount enrollment and a 2.2% decline in FTE enrollment from 2024-2025. This raises the question: Has MoWest turned the corner on enrollment?

Universities long ago exhausted the easy button for attracting students – lazy rivers, elaborate food courts and e-sports. Now comes the hard part: providing value for cash-strapped families, managing budgets in an era of dwindling state aid and aligning degree programs with current and future employer needs.

MoWest went through a period of drastic budget cuts and the elimination of dozens of majors, minors and concentrations. Looking at enrollment over the last five years, you can see the cause and effect. You also see that MoWest got a head start on what other universities experience when people don’t want to buy what you have to sell.

Institutions that eliminated programs include the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Cornell, St. Cloud State University, Arkansas State University, West Virginia University and Emporia State University.

It’s naïve to suggest that program cuts don’t scare off prospective students. But doing things the way they’ve always been done seems like a fool’s errand. If MoWest offers degrees that lead to a good job at the end of the four-year rainbow, then it has a fighting chance.

A few months ago, U.S. News and World Report ranked MoWest as the state’s top regional public university for social mobility. This ranking confirmed the university’s potential to change the lives of disadvantaged and first-generation students.

It also serves as a reminder of why enrollment is worth talking about, even if the results won’t anchor a marketing campaign. A viable and successful MoWest benefits the entire community.