Community colleges' numbers rise
as students go bargain hunting
A faltering economy is sending job-seekers back to school as they look to gain an edge in an increasingly competitive job market.
But there is a twist, according to recent reports: It’s the more affordable, two-year community colleges, and not the four-year institutions, that are seeing the numbers of students go up.
The Chronicle of Higher Educationreported in January that for the 2007-2008 academic year, 66 percent of first-year students returned to the same four-year institution for their second year of college.
Over the past several years, research done by ACT Inc., a nonprofit research and testing group, has shown that retention rates for four-year institutions have steadily declined, and the 2007-2008 numbers represented the lowest level since ACT started gathering the data 26 years ago, the Chronicle reported.
But two-year colleges are not suffering the same fate. The same nonprofit research group found that the retention rate for the 2007-2008 school year for two-year colleges increased from 51 to 54 percent.
Although the retention rates for two-year colleges have traditionally been lower than those of four-year institutions, administrators at Virginia community colleges say the increase in two-year college enrollment numbers is not a coincidence.
"People are looking for new jobs and an affordable education,” said Margaret Boyes, public relations and marketing specialist at Virginia Western Community College. “We are able to offer them that.”
Richard Teaff, president of Dabney S. Lancaster Community College, said that the college has seen a slight increase in both enrollment and retention.
In the past few years, the college has seen more students enroll immediately after their senior year in high school. That’s a shift from a few years ago, Teaff says, when most people who enrolled were 25 to 28 years old.
“We don’t have the numbers in yet, but spring semester may well be our record enrollment,” Teaff said.
The college’s main campus is located in Clifton Forge, with facilities in Buena Vista, and also in Greenfield, in partnership with Virginia Western Community College.
Students at any of the 23 community colleges in Virginia who complete a two-year program get automatic admission into a Virginia public four-year university. Teaff believes that that prospect is attractive to high school seniors who wouldn’t be able to attend a university otherwise.
The Dabney Lancaster president also said that Virginia community colleges offer students low tuition, scholarships and financial aid opportunities. For Virginia residents, tuition at Dabney Lancaster for a three-credit course is about $263.
At four-year James Madison University in Harrisonburg the figure is $662. Those figures come from each institution’s Web site.
Many students who attend community colleges also choose to commute from home, saving the money they would otherwise pay for room and board.
“[The tuition] is, for the most part, affordable,” Teaff said. “But I don’t think we would turn anyone down because of costs. We would find some way to help them.”
Produced by
Washington and Lee
journalism students.
Lead Supervisors:
Prof. Brian
Richardson
Prof. Indira Somani
Editing supervisor:
Prof. Lisa Tracy
Technical supervisor: Michael Todd