A new community college research report finds that a minimum of 5% of noncredit students later become a credit or degree student at the same college within four years.
“The implications for community colleges are significant,” concludes Julie Coates, Senior Vice President for LERN and the report’s lead researcher. The LERN report recommends:
1.Measure the credit students generated.
Colleges need to count and report the number of noncredit students generated by workforce development and continuing education later becoming credit and degree students.
2.Maximize brochure distribution.
The print brochure produces 70% of the noncredit registrations for workforce development and continuing education. Reducing brochure distribution also reduces credit and student income.
“Very few colleges measure and count this financial contribution that workforce development and continuing education makes to the college,” Coates reports.
“The value of the noncredit-to-credit financial contribution is in the millions of dollars every year for the average community and technical college,” adds William A. Draves, President of LERN.
The complimentary report can be accessed here.
For more information, contact William A. Draves at draves@lern.org
or call 800-678-5376 M-F 9-6 ET.
