Community Colleges Industry Overview

Excerpt from Community Colleges Report

About 1,700 community colleges in the US receive combined annual revenue of about $60 billion. Sixty percent of community colleges are publicly operated and 40 percent are operated by private institutions. About 35 percent of the approximately 18 million undergraduate students in the US are enrolled in community colleges.

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. Community colleges are capital-intensive: average annual revenue per employee is about $600,000.

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 112 colleges in 72 districts with a total enrollment of more than 2.6 million students), 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 in academic quality, program offerings, and finances.