College » Carol J. Carter

Community Colleges Pursue Many Paths to Create International Campuses

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Community colleges are turning their focus from local to global. Instead of just preparing graduates with the skills for nearby companies, they are now shifting to focus on success in an international work force.

Questions to consider:
1. What are the benefits of an internationally focused education?
2. How has your education prepared you for a global marketplace?

ARTICLE:

Section: Community Colleges
Volume 55, Issue 10, Page B8

For community colleges, global is the new local. Long attuned to turning out graduates whose skills are calibrated to the needs of nearby companies, two-year colleges are now striving to meet the demands of multinational businesses seeking workers who can succeed in a worldwide marketplace.

Community-college leaders want to ensure that their institutions produce students who can collaborate with co-workers from other countries and cultures, who have an understanding of global economics, and who, perhaps, even speak a foreign language. Despite the obstacles, two-year institutions across the United States are pursuing a variety of strategies to give their students an international edge. Some go for greater numbers of international students, while others are after stronger ties with immigrant groups or multinational firms in their region to provide students with globally relevant volunteer experiences or internships. Still others have developed certificate programs for students who complete several courses with an international perspective. “There’s definitely a recognition of the importance that community-college studies have a global component, that our students need to be more globally educated,” says Judith Irwin, director of international programs and services at the American Association of Community Colleges. “You have to think like that in the 21st century.”

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Many Community-College Students Miss Out on Aid Because They Don’t Apply

From the Chronicle of Higher Education, October 7, 2008

Community colleges serve a large proportion of low-income students each year, but nearly 40 percent of their full-time students don’t even fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

By BECKIE SUPIANO

Community colleges serve a large proportion of low-income students each year, but nearly 40 percent of their full-time students don’t even fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Many of even the poorest students those with family incomes of $0 to $9,999=97do not apply for federal aid. For example, 29 percent of dependent students in that income range do not apply. Students offer a number of reasons for not making that effort, according to a http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/acsfa/applytosucceed.pdf”>re=port, Apply to Succeed: Ensuring Community College Students Benefit from Need-Based Financial Aid,” released Monday by the federal Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance. Some don’t think they are eligible, others say they have enough money to cover the cost of college, and a small percentage say the Fafsa was too complicated, according to data from the 2008 Community College Survey of Student Engagement cited in the report. Whatever the case, many of those students may be missing out on need-based aid.

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Alternative Measure of Success

Currently, graduation rates are measured by the U.S. government by the proportion of students who earn a degree within 150 percent of the expected time (six years for a bachelorâ€™s degree and three years for an associate degree). The U.S. government only counts first-time, full-time students.

The University of Alaska at Anchorage has decided to create its own measure of success and include all types of students and extending to ten years, asking whether the student met their goal or at least made progress on a goal.

Questions to consider:
1. Which measure do you prefer?
2. Do you feel youâ€™ve been successful in pursuing your educational goals?
3. If not, have you made progress?

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ARTICLE:

Get any group of college presidents, assessment experts or education researchers together, and it’s not hard to get a consensus that the federal graduation rate is seriously if not fatally flawed.

According to the U.S. government, graduation rates are measured by the proportion of students who earn a degree within 150 percent of the expected time six years for a bachelor’s degree and three years for an associate degree. The formula counts only one group of students: first-time, full-time students. Not surprisingly, elite, residential colleges that serve well-prepared students do amazingly well by this methodology, routinely having rates in the 90s. But for many other colleges, the graduation rate is both irrelevant (they may have very few first-time, full-time students) and infuriating (the institution that takes full-time, first-time students that other institutions pass over may well be working harder and more effectively, but looks lousy by comparison to the wealthy institution that serves the wealthy.)

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