Written by Becky Kaiser
hay post
North Central Kansas Tech in Hays is seeing an increase in full-time students, outpacing its sister campus in Beloit.
There is a waiting list for the popular Electrical, Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning program in Fall 2024. Welding and nursing programs are also full and have waiting lists.
NCK Tech President Eric Burks recently presented the university's annual activity report to the Hays City Commission. Birx was also joined by NCK Tech's Vice President of Finance and Hays Operations Diana Baumann and several faculty members.
“We are running out of space on the Hays campus,” Birx told commissioners.
The university has plans to construct a new building at a cost of $13 million.
This will double the capacity for construction and commercial driver licensees.
Hays has 250 full-time NCK-Tech students. The school has a Gateway Partnership Program with Fort Hays State University, which allows NCK students to live on her FHSU campus and participate in most student activities. The school's welding program also runs at her FHSU.
NCK-Tech in Beloit has 200 full-time students and on-campus housing and dining services.
The total number of employees per year averages over 1,200.
Most students come from 18 counties in northwest Kansas, with an annual economic impact of $30.7 million.
In January 2023, NCK Tech announced it was pursuing new strategic partnership agreements with Northwest Kansas Tech University in Goodland and Fort Hays State University in Hays.
It is expected to receive approval from the Higher Education Commission this summer and take effect in August.
The NCK-Tech campus will have an on-site visit by the national accreditation team on March 18th and 19th.
“This is really about better serving our students, businesses and community,” Birx said.
“Rather than competing so much with each other for students, we have seriously looked at the other two universities as partners, but we want to look at ways to meet students where they are.” He said.
“Make a real effort to partner with business and industry and put the student at the heart of the partnership between the three institutions. Also, make sure you bring all your business partners to the table and help them achieve their goals. Please support us and help our students become better employees for companies.”
Birx said the missions of both institutions are aligned.
“Fort Hays State University is not taking over us. This is a partnership. We are all strong. We are doing this voluntarily, not out of obligation,” he said. Told. “We do what we do because we feel we are stronger together.”
NCK Tech will remain separate and independent from FHSU but will be known as “Fort Hays Tech.”
The partnership agreement essentially returns some of the authority to the NCK Tech Board of Directors, which will continue to have control over many of its day-to-day operations.
“It also tells me when to cascade things up to share with the president of Fort Hays State University. There's some crossover, but we're still apart for a variety of reasons.” said Mr. Birx.
Birx said the university consistently has the highest graduation rate in Kansas and ranks second in the nation for technical colleges.
“It's not because our program is easy, it's because we have a lot of people who really help our students get to the finish line,” Burks said.
“You can imagine that a lot of our students are very interested in carpentry, plumbing, heating and air conditioning. They're not necessarily interested in English composition or college algebra, so we has people in place to help them get through these classes and gain awareness: How does that relate to what they're about to do?
“These jobs are available not only here in Hays, but throughout the state of Kansas,” Birx said. “They don't have to move to Chicago or Dallas. They become taxpayers and people in our community.”
