Report from Community College Survey of Student Engagement

Posted by University of Texas at Austin on April 13, 2015

Community College Students Working Less; Relying More on Grants and Loans

By Kim Cook, Executive Director

More community college students are relying on grants and loans to pay tuition, while fewer part-time students are working more than 30 hours per week, reports Engagement Rising: A Decade of CCSSE Data Shows Improvements Across the Board. Fifty-eight percent of community college students in 2014 cited grants and scholarships as sources for paying for college, compared to 43 percent in 2004; a 15 percent increase in 10 years. The percentage of all students citing loans as a source of paying tuition rose by 12 percentage points, from 22 percent to 34 percent, over the same time period. Fewer part-time students reported that they worked more than 30 hours per week, dropping 15 percentage points from 54 percent to 39 percent. This author believes it is worth further research to ask if students are trading work for grants and loans, particularly as this time span includes the recent economic recession.

The Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) includes data collected from 2004 to 2014 from 853 public two-year colleges, serving nearly 6.4 million students and 85 percent of community college students. While the study measures student engagement, it also provides data on the profile of community college students, indicating that factors such as part-time enrollment (62 percent of 2013 students) remained fairly steady while the number of “traditional” students aged 18 to 24 rose three points to 58 percent of students in 2013, and Hispanic/Latino enrollment rose by 6 percent, while White enrollment fell by 8 percent.

http://www.ccsse.org/center/