As the importance of a college degree climbs and federal and state grant funding remains inadequate, millions of students in the U.S. continue to take out student loans each year to help pay for their rising education costs. In October 2011, the total amount of outstanding student loan debt in the U.S. exceeded $1 trillion (Chopra, 2012),…

Transfer education centering on the liberal arts declined relatively beginning in the late 1960s with the expansion of vocational education. But the distinctions blurred as courses that matched university programs in business and health fields grew. By the 1970s more than half all associate degrees awarded were to students from occupational…

The evolution of AB degrees has been influenced by an increased emphasis on workforce development, baccalaureate degree attainment, and transfer on the state and institutional levels. Beginning as primarily programmatic decisions made by a few institutions, over time AB degree program decisions have involved more institutions, and eventually…

Data from NCES indicate that it is two to three times more expensive to educate a student at a public four-year college than at a community college. These figures exaggerate the difference between the two when you calculate the costs of the first two years of education for students working on a bachelor's degree. Using modified Integrated…

The State of Florida has been challenged to keep up with the demand for baccalaureate degree production for more than half a century. Fueled first by veterans of World War II and the Korean Conflict, and later by significant and sustained population growth over many decades, Florida's postsecondary infrastructure has struggled to keep pace with…

Rouse [Rouse, C. E. (1995). "Democratization or diversion--the effect of community-colleges on educational-attainment." "Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 13"(2), 217-224] finds that enrollment in a community college may divert students from attaining a bachelor's degree. However, this result may be due to selection…

This report is focused on the strategic, capability and operational reasons why traditional vocational education and training (VET) providers move to the delivery of higher education qualifications in their own right, in addition to their vocational qualifications. It is particularly interested in associate and bachelor degrees. By undertaking six…

Growing Science, Technology, Education, and Mathematics (STEM) talent Washington MESA--Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement--helps under-represented community college students excel in school and ultimately earn STEM bachelor's degrees. MESA has two key programs: one for K-12 students, and the other for community and technical college…

Filipinos are the second largest ethnic group in Hawai'i and their population continues to grow at a rapid pace. However, they are among the lower socioeconomic groups in Hawai'i and are disproportionately represented in the University of Hawai'i system--overrepresented in the community colleges while underrepresented at the flagship campus, the…

Nearly half of all undergraduates in the U.S. are enrolled in community colleges and many aspire to obtain a baccalaureate degree, however, less than 13% do so within six years. Integration has been identified in higher education literature as a salient factor contributing to students' persistence. Empirical evidence suggests that…

In this article, the debate over the community college baccalaureate is placed in the context of both political culture and the history of public education. Bachelor's degree programs are discussed from the standpoint of their contribution to civic life, and a case is made that academically-inclined colleges are crucial to fostering a public…

State-level interest in meeting workforce needs and facilitating adults' baccalaureate attainment is changing conceptions of the applied associate degree and the mission of the community college. In this article, the author draws on data from a recent study about the applied baccalaureate degree (Townsend and Bragg, 2008) to describe the growing…

This article examines various commonalities and divergences between the English further education system and its nearest US equivalent, the community college system. In terms of commonalities, the article discusses the reliance on sub-university institutions to provide access to higher education, persistent dilemmas attendant to that reliance and…

In 2008 Florida's Senate Bill No. 1716 was enacted, which replaced the Florida Community College System with the Florida College System and presented 9 out of the 28 community colleges with the option to transition to state colleges. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of Senate Bill No. 1716 and, in doing so, discuss the…

Over the past two decades, the number of community colleges independently offering baccalaureate degree programs has steadily risen. Though still confined to a very small number of institutions and limited degree programs, this phenomenon continues to generate widespread attention and controversy. This occurs because the trend challenges…