Trends in community college enrollment and completion data, 2016

This is the third of a series of American Association of Community Colleges reports on national trends in community college enrollments. It finds that nationally community college enrollments continue to decrease. The report also examines graduation rates published by the U.S. Department of Education (based on institutional level reporting), as well as the National Student Clearinghouse's completion rates (based on student level data). The completion rates that track students across institutions show much higher community college success rates than the department's official graduation rates.

Overall enrollment in postsecondary institutions continued its decline in the fall of 2015, largely due to enrollment decreases in for-profit and 2-year public institutions. Community colleges experienced the smallest decline in their enrollment in the past 4 years, while private for-profit 4-year institutions experienced a much greater decline (13.7 per cent just since the previous year). The four-year decline follows a surge in enrollment at the height of the recession in 2008 and 2009. The increase in enrollment at public 2-year institutions outpaced the overall enrollment increase across all sectors of higher education.

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