One of
the arguments against permitting community colleges from offering bachelor’s
degrees has always been that doing so would just shift students away from existing
four-year schools in the area. However, a new study shows the opposite.
According
to a report on the Education Dive site, the American Educational Research
Association (AERA) found an overall increase in the number of bachelor’s degrees
awarded after community colleges began such programs. The study focused primarily
on Florida, which in 2014 gave its community colleges the green light for
bachelor’s degrees. As a result, 24 of those campuses now have at least one
bachelor’s program.
AERA
determined that there wasn’t much negative impact on enrollment or graduation
rates at the four-year institutions located in the vicinity of
baccalaurate-degree community colleges. In fact, most of the public four-year
schools even experienced a rise in graduation numbers, although private schools
didn’t get a similar bump.
On the
other hand, for-profit schools did see a drop in degree output, which
correlated to the growth at the neighboring community colleges.
“Both
[two-year and four-year] school types should look to leverage connections in
degree access and industrial development to create pipelines where neither
campus type is competing with another,” noted the Education Dive report.
