Statewide Iowa — The enrollment in the state’s 15 community colleges dropped slightly in 2018.
Enrollment numbers at Northwest Iowa Community College in Sheldon followed that trend, as well, according to NCC Vice President of College Operations and Finance, Mark Brown. He tells us that enrollment at the college was down about 2.5-percent last year.
Statewide, the drop of about 15-hundred students mirrors what happened nationwide, according to Heather Doe of the Iowa Department of Education. She says that was due, in part, to a better economy.
Doe says at the peak when the unemployment level was higher, more people were looking to get a degree or learn new skills at community colleges. Doe says one area that saw an increase last year is the program that let’s high school students take courses before they graduate.
She says the increase is due in part to efforts to provide more access to the community college classes.
The average age of credit students was 21-point-six with 80 percent of students under 25 years of age. Females made up 54-point-three percent of total community college credit enrollment. Minority enrollment increased to a record high of 22-point four percent. The Education Department’s Division Administrator for Community Colleges, Jeremy Varner, says the programs that provide degrees are not the only thing offered by the schools.
There is a positive note, at least locally, to this story. NCC’s Mark Brown tells KIWA that after seeing a 2.5-percent decline in enrollment last year, they have seen an increase of 5.3-percent for the current year at Northwest Iowa Community College.
