Record-Breaking Enrollment at Community Colleges

From the Missouri Community College Association:

Jefferson City, Missouri – September 20, 2010.  Over 8,000 more students are taking classes at Missouri’s community colleges this fall compared to last fall.  This represents an 8% increase in enrollment, and reflects growth at each of the state’s twelve community colleges.

This increase is part of a five-year trend of increased enrollment at community colleges.  Community college leaders attribute enrollment growth to a number of factors.  “Students are telling us that community colleges are the best place to improve their skills and marketability quickly.  We also offer a tremendous value – the average per-credit-hour cost at a community college is about a third of the cost at the state’s public universities, and less than 15 percent of the cost of a private college or university,” said Dr. Hal Higdon, president of Ozarks Technical Community College and chair of the Missouri Community College Association’s Presidents/Chancellors Council.  “Missourians are facing unprecedented financial challenges, so cost is a major factor in students’ decisions about where to go to college.”

These factors have led to a shift in enrollment patterns.  Today, Missouri’s community colleges educate more in-state undergraduate students than any other sector – a change from the past, when public universities had the largest numbers of such students.