Engaging new populations of students through community colleges
This morning's StarTribune had an editorial "Higher ed is reaching a wider population" that cited the following statistics from a 2004 report of the Minnesota Office of Higher Education:
- A quarter of the undergrads in Minnesota colleges are children of parents who did not go to college.
- One-fifth of Minnesota college undergraduates are also parents.
- 83 percent of undergrads hold jobs during the school year.
- 35 percent are 24 years old or older.
- 12 percent have at least one parent who was born in another country.
The editorial notes the special role that community colleges play in the higher-ed system: "Two thirds of Minnesota's undergrads report that they enrolled in a community college at some point in their academic career. That includes about a quarter of students currently enrolled in four-year institutions."
Most faculty (and administrators, I suspect) at the University of Minnesota and similar public research universities across the country are unaware of this role of community colleges. We pay a lot of attention to demographic predictions about declining numbers of "traditional" college-age students, and to the need to attract students from non-traditional backgrounds through a more intentional and comprehensive preK-12 strategy. But we tend to overlook the importance of post-secondary "feeder" institutions. Clearer communication of needs and expectations and more thoughtful interactions between all levels of higher education are badly needed.