PHOTO: Courtesy of WLUK
OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh is beginning to right the ship after years of enrollment declines and budget woes.
Chancellor Manohar Singh, now in his second semester in the position, addressed the university’s status Tuesday.
“The challenge is to stop the decline of enrollments and stabilize, and then resurge back to growth,” said Singh.
UWO’s enrollment has continued to decline over the past year, but at a slower rate than it has since pre-COVID. It declined 2.4% from spring 2025 to spring 2026 after averaging 4-7% annual declines for the previous seven years.
With the declining birth rate, UW-Oshkosh is looking for some non-traditional ways to attract students.
“We’re still going to have our traditional undergrad come to campus, live in the residence halls and go to football games,” said Ed Martini, provost and vice chancellor at UW-Oshkosh. “But [we] need better programs that better deliver for those adult learners who are coming back, who are juggling full-time jobs and families, for those online learners, for those transfer students that we need to reclaim coming in from our tech school partners.”
It’ll have to put effort into attracting adult students, as birth rate declines are beginning to impact colleges.
Oshkosh eliminated its $18 million budget deficit and even created a fund balance of about $5 million — and, of course, hopes to keep building on it. It’s forming partnerships to draw students from technical colleges, now that its branch campuses serving Fond du Lac and the Appleton area are closed.
It’s also collaborating with other universities in the area, which is new and unique.
“We’re trying to find the synergies there so that we don’t duplicate the same program that students need, and hence compete against each other,” said Singh.
So, just as a hypothetical: if Lawrence University has a strong data analytics program and Oshkosh doesn’t, it won’t look to compete. Instead, it’ll look to expand in another area — both for undergraduate and graduate programs.
“I think this spirit is unconventional, but it has been long coming,” said Singh.
UW-Oshkosh has also rented out its facility spaces to generate an additional $1.1 million.
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