NEW ORLEANS (AP) — After six years of post-Katrina growth, Delgado Community College reported an 11.4 percent drop in the number of full-time students who registered for the fall semester.

Even with this decline from its all-time-high total of 20,452 students last fall, Delgado remains the most populous local institution of higher education, with 18,115 students at eight locations around the New Orleans area.

Delgado spokesman Tony Cook tells The Times-Picayune (http://bit.ly/Sgfngb) that at least some of Delgado’s decline is the result of a policy change.

For the first time, about 800 people in the college’s apprentice programs were removed from the list of full-time students. Because these programs offer no academic credit, Cook says transferring them made more sense.

Delgado has become an increasingly popular destination since the recession began in 2008, with some students signing up for programs that could guarantee employment and others returning to school to learn new, competitive skills.

Demand was so great three years ago that Delgado had to turn away about 1,500 applicants because it had run out of room, the result of Hurricane Katrina-related repairs that hadn’t been made. That problem doesn’t exist anymore, but the demand for the courses Delgado offers “is still very, very high,” Cook said.

The other notable drop in enrollment occurred at the University of New Orleans, where this semester’s 10,071 total is 7.6 percent below last fall’s 10,903. A major reason for this slump is that, for the first time, UNO is not offering remedial courses, said Brett Kemker, UNO’s vice president for student affairs and enrollment management.

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Information from: The Times-Picayune, http://www.nola.com