The annual report on the state’s 15 community colleges is out. Department of Education Community Colleges Bureau Chief Amy Gieseke says enrollment this past year was more than 123,000 students.
“Which is an uptick of 3.1% over the previous year. And if you’ll recall in our fall enrollment report, fall enrollment had showed that we were up above pre-pandemic levels again,”she says. “When looking at the entire academic year, we are still slightly below pre-pandemic levels.” Gieseke says they have gradually recovered after enrollment dropped to around 116,000 during the pandemic.
“We are inching nearer to the 128,000 which was the annual pre-pandemic number. So we are getting there. Enrollments are starting to recover,” she says. She says they are also seeing the number of credit hours taken come back. “We’re at 1.63 million credit hours. So we’re nearing the one-point-seven, which was the number pre-pandemic. And it was also a 3% uptick over last academic year,” Gieseke says.
Gieseke says there’s been changes in the types of degrees students are seeking. “Five-year trends show declines in both developmental education as well as declines in the general Associate of Arts, Associate of Science degrees. We also see five-year increases in joint enrollment, online enrollment, and transfer major types. And those changes are largely due to really intentional programmatic shifts at the state and local level,” Gieseke says.
The top program mirrors one of the biggest needs for workers in the state. “Of our top three credit programs, Health Sciences is the largest, which is nearly double the second most popular program of business management and administration, followed closely by law, public safety and security,” Gieske says.
She says the number of degrees, diplomas, and certificates awarded continues to go up. “Our colleges collectively issued a record high 21,367 awards to nearly 18,000 students. And that’s nearly a nine percent increase over the last year,” she says.
Gieske says more than 13% of the awards are in smaller degree types like certificates and diplomas versus the full associate degree. “And we’re seeing this number break our records each year. So increasingly, students are wanting shorter, smaller degrees and credentials to get into the workforce more quickly,” she says. The numbers show that 90% of community college students are Iowa residents, and just under 20% are considered full-time. She presented the report to the State Board of Education Thursday.