MoWest faces enrollment struggles while NWMSU sees Growth

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) -- Missouri Western State University is facing a steep enrollment decline — a trend that has played out over the last five years and is raising concerns about long-term sustainability.

Meanwhile, just up the road, Northwest Missouri State University is seeing steady growth.

What’s Happening at MoWest?

Over the last half-decade, enrollment at Missouri Western has dropped by 23%. Several factors are at play, including:

• Shifting demographics – The university’s traditional student base is shrinking. Buchanan County, where half of the student body used to come from, now accounts for a significantly smaller share.
• Institutional instability – Even as full-time faculty numbers rose by 5%, student enrollment dropped, leading to added budget stress.
• Program cuts – Several academic programs have been slashed, raising concerns about academic quality and appeal.
• Pandemic impact – Like many schools, MoWest saw its existing challenges worsen during COVID-19.
• System-wide pressures – Across the Midwest, many universities have experienced similar drops, in part due to rising tuition and changing student expectations.

On top of that, MoWest has faced high scholarship costs and budget deficits, which have limited its ability to invest in new recruitment efforts or academic programs.

How NWMSU turned numbers around

In contrast, NWMSU has taken strategic steps to grow — and it’s proving to be working. The university’s headcount increased by over 40% from fall 2018 to fall 2023, jumping from about 6,800 to 9,150 students.

NWMSU academic officials shared the ways the college was able to increase its enrollment numbers, noting the big difference the changes have made in enrollment.

“We changed how we enroll freshmen and support them during the process. We also updated our policies for transfer students — and that’s made a big difference,” said Dr. Jamie Hooyman, Northwest's chief academic officer.

Over the past three years, the university generated more than $12 million in excess revenue. The financial cushion has helped them double down on profession-based learning and create hands-on opportunities through campus media and business partnerships.

Intentional changes made over time

NWMSU's enrollment success didn’t happen overnight. Hooyman said the transformation has been a seven-year process involving strategic decisions around programs, partnerships, and even the balance between in-person and online offerings.

“One of our main goals is to improve students’ lifestyles and make them career-ready,” Hooyman said. “We’ve been intentional about aligning what we offer with what students need for their futures.”

The university has worked closely with corporate partners to ensure its programs meet real-world demands — eliminating unnecessary red tape for students while keeping programs aligned with workforce trends.

Even the pandemic, Hooyman says, became an opportunity to rethink and re-prioritize student needs.

Students at Missouri Western University say the challenges go deeper than enrollment numbers, pointing to a lack of campus engagement and community as major concerns. 

Senior student Finn says safety should be a top priority and believes some students feel they can’t openly voice concerns.  

“I believe student safety needs to be a top priority. I feel a lot of students feel that, they can’t voice their opinions as well on concerns they have with the campus,” Finn, senior said.  

Students say the campus struggles to provide enough support for building new social groups and programs that foster a sense of belonging. According to Finn, the limited number of student activities is one of the biggest drawbacks.  

“But the problem is they are so focused on the students that they can get versus the students they can keep which contributes to the fact if we’re not seeing students we can keep those students are going to transfer out and if that happens you’re graduation rate drops, a 38% from 2023 to 2024 is huge,” Finn said.  

For Missouri Western alum Nora Akers, the biggest concern is that certain majors just aren’t available anymore — and she says that’s pushing some students to transfer to other schools.  

“They got rid of a lot of physical art classes that they made. And there were also rumors going around about the entire English major cut of the system entirely,” Akers said.  

Akers believes one way to turn things around is to reinvest in courses students actually want. She points to a recent example in the animation program.  

“I know that the animation copurse recently did add a 2D animation class when before it was only 3D and several students enrolled in that because that was something they wanted to take but it wasn’t available in the past, Akers said.  

Junior Piper Cohen shares the same frustration.  

“We used to have illustration majors and painting majors and we just don’t have the spaces for that anymore because they’re focusing more heavily on graphic design and animation so its harder on people who want to try other majors but they can’t,” Cohen said.  

Cohen says the university needs to make retention a priority, because the decline has been steady for the past five years.  

“Unless there’s like some miraculous semester where they get like a million people enrolling all at once, I don’t think its going to get much better,” Akers said.  

Students say they’re hopeful Missouri Western can reverse the trend — but that will mean bringing back more opportunities, adding programs, and giving students reasons to stay.