MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Summer enrollment at schools within the Alabama Community College System is up 10.62% compared to the summer of 2022.
Twenty-one of the system’s 23 community colleges have increased enrollment, Neil Scott, ACCS’s vice chancellor of student success said. He recently presented the enrollment data to the ACCS board.
Systemwide, 46,434 students are taking for-credit courses, Scott said. Those are both traditional academic classes and those related to skilled trades.
Scott told Alabama Daily News at least some of the summer enrollment increase is a carryover from previous semesters.
“I would say a lot of that is based on the fact that we had a pretty sizable increase in both the fall and the spring semester too,” Scott said. “So that means that there are more students who are left over taking courses.”
Scott said community college enrollment is typically down during times of high employment. The state has seen record unemployment levels in the last two years. But Scott said a goal of the system is to help people who already have jobs find better ones. He said he is most concerned about improving labor participation, rather than just unemployment. The labor participation rate measures able-bodied adults in the workforce and is just under 57%.
“We’re trying to reach out to them very intentionally to make sure that they know what kind of opportunities are out there for them, so what we’re really trying to do is not necessarily improve unemployment rate, but trying to improve labor participation rate,” he told ADN.
Scott also said that an increase in summer enrollment could also be because of university students home for the summer who want to get ahead on classes at a cheaper rate than their university.
“Our colleges have also been much more intentional about marketing some of their transient courses and making sure that they are reaching out to students who may have attended another college but would like to take a summer course while they’re at home,” he said.
This can be seen in the 11.06% increase in credit hour production across the ACCS; 330,837 as of mid-June.
Also included in Scott’s presentation was 64,757 applications for the fall semester, a 15.02% increase . Of those applications, ACCS saw increases in several student types, including but not limited to first-time freshmen, 14.15%; transfers, 7.1%; dual enrollment, 25.35%; and readmit/returning students, 11.03%.
According to a press release from ACCS, leaders from the system’s schools met recently to talk about ways to boost success in dual enrollment students. There has been a 65% increase in students taking high school and community college courses since 2015, according to the release.
Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, attributed the general increase in enrollment to the increase in dual enrollment over the last five years. Orr chairs the Senate education budget committee. In 2024, dual enrollment funding will be $30.6 million.
“Knowing the national trends I think this is somewhat of a pleasant surprise,” Orr told ADN said about the enrollment increases. “But I also know Chancellor (Jimmy) Baker and the ACCS board have been aggressive in providing pathways with minimal obstructions for students to access higher education through the community colleges.”