Iowa community colleges see enrollment losses, tuition increases

As Iowa community college enrollment drops, tuition ticks up — perpetuating a cycle that’s influenced by a range of factors like the pandemic, the economy and the need to balance a budget.

The cycle mirrors community college trends nationally, and threatens their ability to help meet workforce demands.

Still, a new “2021 Iowa Condition of Community Colleges Report” — released this month — highlights efforts the two-year public campuses are making toward the governor’s “Future Ready Iowa” goal of getting 70 percent of working Iowans education or training beyond high school by 2025.

“Iowa’s 15 community colleges educate the largest demographic (40.1 percent) of all Iowa residents enrolled in public or private two- and four-year postsecondary institutions in the state, exceeding the national average of 35.6 percent,” according to the Iowa report, citing the National Center for Education Statistics.

But like Iowa’s public universities, community colleges recorded enrollment losses in the last COVID-19 plagued academic year, spanning fall 2020 to summer 2021.

“There were 116,979 students enrolled in credit programs in AY20-21, an unprecedented decline of 7.9 percent from the previous academic year,” according to the report, conceding the average annual community college enrollment already was declining nearly 3 percent since 2012. “Credit hours also decreased to 1,553,727, representing a 7.2 percent decline since last year.”

Joint enrollment — the tally of high school students also taking community college courses — dropped nearly 9 percent in the last academic year from 51,800 in the 2019-2020 term to 47,262 last year. Those students enrolled in a total of 395,603 semester credit hours, down from 428,798.

“This significant decrease in jointly enrolled students and credit hours is consistent with an overall decline in student and credit enrollment, presumably attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to the report.

Noncredit enrollment — students pursuing personal or academic skill building, workforce preparation, industry-specific technical courses and continuing education for recertification and licensure — dropped 3 percent. And the “adult education and literacy” head count of 10,676 students was nearly 23 percent down from the previous year.

Online increases

The one student group that predictably swelled across Iowa’s community colleges in the 2020-2021 academic year was online enrollment — as institutions nationally made an unparalleled degree of instruction virtual due to pandemic concerns.

More than 77,000 students enrolled in online for-credit learning at an Iowa community college in 2020-21, up nearly 11 percent from the year prior. Combined, those students took 749,663 semester hours online, up 45 percent from the previous year.

“The COVID-19 pandemic precluded face-to-face instruction for many educational institutions nationwide,” according to the report, which cited national numbers showing 70 percent of students enrolled in some type of community college distance learning in fall 2020 — more than doubling the previous year’s 34 percent. “In Iowa, that proportion was 62.8 percent, compared to the previous year’s 37.9 percent.”

The Iowa report — produced by the Iowa Department of Education — expressed optimism about the community colleges’ future and ability to navigate pandemic waters.

“Just as they adapted from a narrow focus in 1918 to the comprehensive educational system and workforce training vehicle they are today, Iowa’s community colleges are prepared to adapt to the economic and technical challenges presented by COVID-19 and a changing economy,” the authors note. “Though the pandemic made an immediate impact on higher education, community colleges are built to be highly responsive to student needs even as challenges emerge.”

Tuition up

Although access to education remains a hotly-debated issues regionally and nationally — with Iowa’s public four-year universities increasing tuition — every community college in Iowa raised rates for the current academic year.

On average, the price per credit hour for an in-state student rose $5, or about 3 percent. Hawkeye Community College posted the biggest rate hike of $10 — amounting to a 5 percent jump — while Iowa Lakes Community College posted the lowest of $2, for a 1 percent increase.

Cedar Rapids’ Kirkwood Community College upped its tuition $6 per in-state credit hour — from $180 to $186 — for a 3 percent jump. Kirkwood’s out-of-state per-credit-hour cost rose from $237 to $249, or 5 percent.

Iowa Code prohibits community colleges from charging in-state students more than do Iowa’s public universities. The annual report indicates the highest per-credit-hour rate at an Iowa community college is $202, up from the highest of $176 in 2017-2018, but still 38 percent below the lowest base rate at a public university of $325.

The highest community college rate is, however, rising faster than the public universities’ — at 13 percent, compared with 12 percent. And while financial aid remains a “critical component of college access and affordability,” collective community college aid distributions dropped last year.

Where more than $309 million was distributed in the 2018-19 year, that total decreased to $265.4 million in 2020-21. Kirkwood and Des Moines Area Community Colleges — the largest in the state — had the most federal Pell Grant recipients in the recent year, with Kirkwood counting 3,950 students awarded disbursements of $13.6 million.

State-funded aid, however, has increased — including through the Future Ready Iowa Last-Dollar Scholarship, given to students pursuing a credential for a “high-demand job.” In the 2020-21 academic year, $19.3 million was awarded to 7,604 students.

In a statement, 18-year-old Stephanie Jenkins — enrolled in the medical assistant program at Northeast Iowa Community College — said the Last-Dollar Scholarship was a big help, as she didn’t qualify for any other student aid.

“Last-Dollar Scholarship was great for me,” she said. “I didn’t have to worry about getting a part-time job while in school to help pay for tuition. I could just focus on learning.”

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