Community Colleges

About 1,100 community colleges in the US receive combined annual revenue of $25 billion. Ninety percent of community colleges are publicly operated and 10 percent are operated by private, nonprofit institutions. Slightly less than half of all undergraduate students in the US are enrolled in community colleges. The typical college has 4,000 students and 400 employees, roughly 60 percent of whom are faculty.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Demand for services depends on the demographic composition of the communities that surround a school. Because most are state-mandated institutions, community colleges often have some leeway in balancing their budgets. There is little competition among schools, because admission is usually restricted to residents of surrounding communities. A large proportion of students are part-time.

PRODUCTS, OPERATIONS & TECHNOLOGY

Community colleges offer mainly two-year programs of study that prepare students either for transfer to a four-year college or university, or for direct entry into the workforce; they also offer continuing education for workers. Graduates earn an associates degree or various industry/trade certificates. They are public institutions under state or local control and generally must admit any state resident with a high school diploma. Community colleges usually serve a particular district within a state (California operates 108 colleges in 72 districts), and most of their students live within the district. Some community colleges offer specialized education and some provide training especially for the types of work available in their district. Community colleges differ from four-year colleges ...