Community College enrollment continues to increase

Enrollment at Iowa’s community colleges continues to grow. A new Iowa Department of Education report shows enrollment at the state’s community colleges grew 13 percent over the past six years. The state system of two-year institutions was established in the 1960s to offer technical training as well as a lower-cost alternative to the first two years of a college education. In 1994, over 52-thousand students were enrolled in the 15 area community colleges. This fall, enrollment was nearly 67-thousand. By comparison, that’s just two thousand less than the number of graduate and undergraduate students at the state universities in Ames, Iowa City and Cedar Falls.