Strong job market cuts into community colleges

Enrollment on nine-year decline, but associate degrees are up

Black Hawk College in Moline was one of the few Illinois community colleges to increase enrollment this fall — in spite of the Halloween snow. (Facebook/Black Hawk College)

By Ted Cox

A strong job market is cutting into enrollment at Illinois community colleges — and has been throughout the decade.

The Illinois Community College Board released its 10-day head counts in October and reported that overall enrollment at state two-year colleges fell for the ninth straight year.

But there’s good news hiding behind those figures. The nationwide decline is blamed on a strong job market that has been steadily improving throughout the decade since the depths of the Great Recession in 2010, with Illinois unemployment at a record low 3.9 percent this September, the most recent data available.

And while enrollment has steadily declined, graduations have held relatively firm since increasing dramatically during the 2010s. Associate degrees, or “completions,” have held steady in recent years and are well above the figures from the 2000s, when community-college enrollment was far higher.

According to 10-day enrollment figures, 48 Illinois community colleges registered 271,426 students this fall, down 4.2 percent from the 283,415 last year. The number of full-time students paralleled those figures, with 157,615 enrolled, down 4.1 percent from the 164,405 last year.

Over the last five years, statewide enrollment at two-year schools has dropped 14.1 percent, from 316,155 in 2015. Of all Illinois community colleges, only John A. Logan in Carterville saw enrollment rise at all over those five years — a modest 4.7 percent.

But graduations, or “completions,” are estimated at 66,000 this year, level with the 66,143 recorded two years ago and fairly consistent with the record 71,787 in 2015. By contrast, according to the college board, fall enrollment stood at 350,508 in 2006 and 339,002 in 2001, with about 190,000 full-time students. Yet the statewide system graduated just 38,420 in 2001 and 49,627 in 2006.

And a handful of colleges did see increases from last year to this fall, including Black Hawk, Carl Sandburg, Danville, Elgin, John Wood, McHenry County, Morton, Richland (up 15 percent), and Southeastern Illinois. (John Logan actually declined from last year.)

As one might expect, enrollment in online classes has steadily increased over the last five years and from last year to this fall.