Universities Weblog

(Source: The New York Times)

The New York Times is offering a few articles on community colleges, along with profiles of students and individual institutions. For those considering a two-year school, the section's worth a look.

Here's a bit from John Merrow's intro:

Matters were simpler 100 years ago, when junior colleges were created to prepare deserving students for the final two years of a university. In fact, the very first public junior college, in Joliet, Ill., was set up in a high school, as the equivalent of grades 13 and 14.

Community colleges today do far more than offer a ladder to the final years. They train the people who repair your furnace, install your plumbing, take your pulse. They prepare retiring baby boomers for second or third careers, and provide opportunities for a growing number of college-age students turning away from the high cost and competition at universities. And charged with doing the heavy remedial lifting, community colleges are now as much 10th and 11th grade as 13th and 14th.

It's a long to-do list on a tightening public purse. Two-year colleges receive less than 30 percent of state and local financing for higher education, according to the American Association of Community Colleges. Yet they are growing much faster than four-year colleges and universities, enrolling nearly half of all undergraduates. That's 6.6 million students. Add those taking just a course or two, and the total reaches some 12 million.

You can read the rest here and find the "Ed Life" section here.

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