AUSTIN, Texas — A recent report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows community college enrollment grew this spring nationwide, while enrollment at four-year schools declined.
Dr. Dorado Kinney, the associate vice chancellor of enrollment management at Austin Community College (ACC), said enrollment at ACC is up right now, especially among new students. As of Monday, July 10, the headcount of new students at ACC was up 39% from last year and 49% from two years ago.
Kinney said coming out of the pandemic, a lot of students, especially younger ones, may see more value in a two-year or certificate option than spending money on a four-year.
"We have a very, very robust early college high school and dual-credit program here, where students in some ISDs can even get their associate's degrees before they finish their high school diploma. So students can get upwards of 60 hours before they move on to their four-year institutions," Kinney said.
According to recent data from ACC, there was a strong interest in more flexible course options like online and 8-week classes, with new student enrollment in online-only classes up about 21% over fall 2022 and enrollment in 8-week courses up about 23% from last year.
Other factors that could also be contributing to the enrollment growth include the value of a college degree – and trying to avoid going into debt to attain one.
"Some of our students don't want to wait six years to really get into what they need to be doing. Some want to be in a living wage income within the next year and a half, and that's something that we provide that a four-year institution doesn't," Kinney said.
On July 10, daily registration reports indicated enrollment growth in the high-demand sectors of business; science, engineering and math (STEM); computer science and IT (CS/IT); design, manufacturing, construction and applied technologies (DMCAT); and liberal arts compared to fall 2022.
"If you can go to ACC for a year and a half and graduate and make $60,000 versus going to any of our four-year institution[s] for five years and not making that amount and coming out with four times as much debt, it just makes more sense," Kinney said.
Last fall, The University of Texas at Austin admitted its largest-ever incoming class and enrolled more students than ever before. According to its website, the university has 9,109 first-time, first-year undergraduates, according to data collected on the 12th class day of the current fall term. That surpasses the record high from the previous year of 9,060. Total university enrollment rose to 52,384, surpassing the all-time high of 52,261 set in 2002.
UT Austin said it won’t have upcoming enrollment numbers until September, after the 12th class day.
Nationally, the largest majority of the four-year decline was in students seeking master's degrees, with a loss of about 57,000 students.
This fall, ACC will launch a new degree option where students can earn an Associate of Science in Business Administration degree (BUA) entirely through 8-week classes at the Northridge campus.
ACC expects fall enrollment to continue to grow. Registration remains open, and classes begin Monday, Aug. 21.