Trends and Current Issues

How Have Community Colleges Changed the Face of Education?

Years ago, attending college was a privilege that many people didn’t have. Though tuition rates were much more affordable back then, it was entirely possible to enter the workforce without a degree and to rise through the ranks steadily. Today, however, a college degree is a necessity for even entry-level positions, and even then, it is difficult for recent graduates to find a job. Current tuition prices also leave students saddled with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.

There are currently over 5,300 colleges and universities in the United States, and collectively, they are part of the American higher education system. Of those, there are nearly 1,500 community colleges, and each year, more than one-third of undergraduate students choose public and private two-year colleges over traditional four-year colleges and universities.

As the number of community colleges and community college students continues to rise, the effect they have on the American higher education system is greater. Keep reading to learn about the history of community colleges and how they have changed over the years – you’ll also learn how they have affected higher education in the United States.

In this TED talk, Dr. Hanna Jaff Bosdet explains the importance of higher education.

Understanding the Importance of Higher Education

Before we get into the details of how community colleges have changed the face of the American

Working adults have long struggled with the challenges of balancing their careers, their families, and their educational goals. Community colleges offer traditional and non-traditional students the opportunity to work toward their educational goals without the lifestyle changes that come with the traditional four-year college experience. But, even with the flexibility of early morning, evening, and even Saturday classes, adult students can find it difficult to attend even local college campuses.

Convenient, Expensive, Private On-line Universities

Private online universities, sometimes called for-profit universities, actively market the convenience of attending college courses online, anytime, from anywhere. While online universities offer a convenient option for working students, they are typically far more expensive than public community colleges. For example, the total cost of a two-year degree at the online University of Phoenix is approximately $22,000, while the same two-year degree from a community college in New York would cost an in-state resident about $9,000. Community Colleges Respond to a Need for Convenience

Richard Lock explains the 7 top benefits of online learning in this video.

Community college administrators understand that students often choose much more expensive college options because of convenience. As a result, they are taking steps to make community college more accessible to all students by introducing new modalities for online learning, including:

• Blended courses
• Online asynchronous courses
• MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)
• Blended Courses

Sometimes called hybrid classes, blended classes combine traditional on-campus classroom instruction with

How to Know if Community College is Right for You

So you’re ready to make a big decision about your next step in life. is community college the right choice for you?

• A community college offers students a wide range of benefits and is a good choice for many people.
• Some students go through a lot of preparation to determine what they want to do after they graduate and where they want to go in life.
• Adults too may find themselves at a crossroads where they have the option to return to college for a degree or further training.
• Thousands of students, in every state, enroll in community college and find the experience to be very worthwhile.
• Community college might be especially good for you if you can answer yes to any of these points.

Canva generated this photo of a student thinking about community college.

1. Cost is a major factor in your decision.
Tuition is usually a lot cheaper at a community college than it is at a four-year college or university.

• You can save money by taking classes at a community college, and even if you transfer to another college for a higher degree, those first few years of education will cost you less at the community college.
• Two years at a four-year school could cost you $40,000 but those same two years at a community college may cost half that or less!
• This option is

As community colleges strive to bring their training in line with 21st-century workforce needs, more technology is coming to schools across the country. For example, Diverse Issues in Higher Education reports that Prince George’s Community College has added innovative technology to the school’s state-of-the-art nursing program. The school invested $43 million into a new Center for Health Studies in an effort to accommodate a growing population of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) students at the school.

Simulated mannequins are now used inside the center to teach nursing students the finer points of diagnosis and patient care. The nursing lab also boasts transparent mirrors where professors can observe students during diagnosis trials. Updated equipment, including sonography and surgical tools, are similar to those used at nearby hospital facilities in the Prince George area.

This video describes the STEM program at Holyoke Community College.

“Since nursing and health fields, in general, are among the fastest-growing jobs, we really wanted this building to help make room for more health science students,” Angela Anderson, dean of the division of Health Sciences at Prince George’s Community College, told Diverse Issues in Higher Education.

More Classes

Other community colleges across the country are adding to their class selection, thanks to more money in the budget for this academic year. The Press Democrat reports that the course catalog at Santa Rosa Junior College is getting

The “skilled worker shortage” has become popular fodder for educators and business leaders alike. The perceived shortage has pushed for more partnerships between businesses and local community colleges and even more effective vocational programs at the high school level. However, some economists and other experts argue that the labor shortage is a myth, construed by educators and others who are interested in promoting their own interests by expanding the base of mid-level skills in the country. So is the skilled worker shortage a hard fact or mere myth? The answer may be much more complex than one might think.

Jobs Sitting Empty

One compelling argument in favor of the skilled worker shortage is the fact that many jobs at this level are sitting vacant today. Bloomberg Business Week reports that as many as 600,000 manufacturing jobs in the United States remain unfilled. Those numbers come from a recent report published by Manufacturing Institute.

According to the Business Review, New York alone could see a worker shortage of 350,000 by 2018, as the need for skilled employees in the technology sector continues to rise. The Society for Human Resource Management cites numbers from the McKinsey Global Institute that show the world could be short 40 million college-educated workers by 2020. Developed areas of North America and Europe alone could see a worker gap of up to 16-18 million workers by 2020.

While the numbers sound grand, individuals are urged to take a