The Associated Press

LEXINGTON - Rising enrollment at the University of Kentucky is resulting in larger classes and a waiting list for student housing.

UK's estimated freshman class of 4,050 this fall would be a record.

It means that each daytime music appreciation class will have 60 students instead of 50. For Heidy Ximenes, a graduate student who will teach one of the sections of the survey of classical music, that means an overcrowded room and extra papers and tests to grade.

Increasing class sizes is one way other state colleges and universities are coping with another year of higher enrollments as classes resume this week. Many schools are expecting a record enrollment, continuing six years of overall growth in Kentucky.

UK, which had a record 26,260 students last fall, is hiring 10 new instructors this year in high-demand areas such as agriculture, psychology and foreign language. Still, some basic courses can be hard to get.

Kayce Ware, 19, a junior from Louisville and a recruiter for her UK sorority, Alpha Omicron Pi, said many of the freshmen she talks to say they cannot sign up for English 101.

Enrollment at four-year universities in the state has increased 11.1 percent since 1997, when Kentucky enacted sweeping higher-education reforms. Last fall, total enrollment for those schools was 117,926.

At the state's community and technical colleges, enrollment has increased 92.3 percent during that period, to 80,695 last fall. The figure includes everyone from students pursuing two-year degrees to those receiving short-term job training.

Colleges are considering enrollment caps in some cases.

"We could be in a situation where we tell students who are late enrollees that we just don't have room for them," said Jim Votruba, president of Northern Kentucky University, where enrollment climbed to 13,945 last year, from 11,785 in 1997.

Votruba said that if NKU's enrollment increase reaches 5 percent this fall, the school might have to cut off admissions because it does not have the space for classrooms.