How have changes in the costs of enrolling for full-time study at public 2-year and 4-year colleges have affected the decisions about whether and where to enroll in college? We exploit local differences in the growth of tuition at community colleges and public 4-year colleges to study the impact of public higher education costs on the…

Wyoming Community College Commission policy currently states any student enrolled for more than 12 credit hours will be charged tuition for only 12 credit hours. This policy is referred to as the tuition cap. In November 2010, the commission discussed increasing the tuition cap to 15 credits. An increase from 12 to 15 credits would have…

Community colleges and universities have traditionally functioned independently, serving their respective markets and offering different programs and credentials. Growing populations and workforce needs have inspired institutions of higher education to challenge their traditional roles to provide added pathways and opportunities for students. One…

A growing body of research confirms the financial and academic benefits that accrue to students whose faculty adopt open educational resources, or OER. While there are no content licensing costs associated with using OER, there are several real costs that must be incurred by an institution that chooses to support its faculty in adopting OER. The…

Since the publication of the initial report of the League's Commission on the Future (COTF), there have been many reports written and the California Community Colleges have taken many steps to improve student success and completion. However, there is still much to do. This paper will provide a brief assessment of where we are--in relation to…

When colleges turned to online learning, they opened the door for a number of students who might have only dreamed of pursuing a degree or credential. In 2006, the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) surveyed prospective adult students without a college degree and discovered that they were three times more likely to enroll in…

This is a report about a unique postsecondary education system, the Tennessee Technology Centers--a statewide system of 27 institutions providing a wide range of rigorous, one to two year, technical/occupational education programs at consistently high completion and placement rates in high skill and relatively high wage employment. This report…

Close to 50% of all college students attend 2-year colleges, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics (2003). The common assumption is that students who choose 2-year schools do so because they are academically deficient or price conscious. However, little research has been done on why students choose to attend a 2-year college.…

Proposes a computer-based simulation technique--system dynamics--for use in policy development and decision making by community college administrators. Utilizes the technique to create a model showing the responses of three student income groups to increases in tuition. (DD)

After identifying the components of a community college financial system as enrollment, costs, revenues and tuition, this paper addresses the need for a system dynamics analysis of a California community college district. This systems approach would assess the possible effects of alternative policies on the characteristic behavior modes of the…

A generic, descriptive system dynamics model is presented for a California community college district single campus. It provides an analytical tool for community college administrators who must consider the dynamic effects of policy changes on the system as a whole, rather than on isolated components of the system, when corrective financial…

This paper argues that community college models, especially in developing countries, can be victims of the vocational school fallacy, which holds that that two-year vocational/technical schools that ignore a general education foundation may not be an optimal means for solving worker needs. In addition, globalization has hastened a mirroring of the…

This book addresses the issues surrounding the financing of community colleges. The first two chapters deal with the development of American community colleges and the functions and finances of these institutions. Chapter three explores the benefits and disadvantages that would accrue to parties involved in higher education if any of several…

In order to analyze the California system of community college finance within a national context, a review of recent literature was followed by an intensive study and survey of eight states, chosen to illustrate alternative solutions to California financing problems. National trends among community colleges that emerged included (1) the…