As community college in Mass. enrollment booms, the latest data show the percentage of students who completed their degree within six years of entering school remained stagnant last year, at 34 percent.
BOSTON (SHNS) – As community college enrollment booms after the Legislature and Gov. Maura Healey made it free this summer, the latest data show the percentage of community college students who completed their degree within six years of entering school remained stagnant last year, at 34 percent.
Since 2011, about a third of all Massachusetts community college students have completed their degree or certificate at any college in the U.S. within six years of entering community college.
That number has stayed static through the class that entered in 2017 — whose six-year window ended last year, making that cohort the most recently available data of degree completion.
The line remained flat throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, with classes who were impacted by the pandemic completing their degrees or certificates at the same rate as community college students before them.
As the state invests hundreds of millions of dollars into higher education — and administration officials and lawmakers have credited one of their signature programs, free community college, with an enrollment boom — the Board of Higher Education has set its sights on increasing the number of students who actually leave with a degree or certificate.
In June 2023, the board set a target that by 2033, 40 percent of community college students complete their degrees within six years. There are also specific goals for racial and ethnic subgroups of students.
Making community college free for all students who don’t have a prior degree cost the state $117.5 million. Between the fall of 2023 and fall 2024, when the cost of tuition and fees was waived, the state’s 15 community colleges added 9,492 students — a 14 percent boost.
It follows an 8.7 percent enrollment increase last year, after lawmakers and Healey made community college free for students 25 and older in 2023, which reversed over a decade of declines in community college enrollment.
The state also has been increasing funding for the SUCCESS program at the 15 community colleges for years, which includes wraparound services for students such as personalized coaching, academic support, on-campus leadership opportunities and resources for vulnerable students. This year, it was funded at $14.7 million.
Though degree completion has stayed stagnant, there have been some signs of growth in what the department calls “success outcome trends” among community colleges.
In the 2022-2023 school year, 60.6 percent of students continued on to their second fall semester. That’s a slight rise up from persistence metrics the year before, when only 57.2 percent of students continued one year after entering school.
This jump in student retention was before the state made its first step towards making community college free for students, but during the time lawmakers and former Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration was ramping up SUCCESS program funding.
“When I look at this data, I think back to when I was a college president in our system and the SUCCESS program was proposed, and has since been funded by the [Board of Higher Ed]. I think this data is really showing that it’s working,” said Board of Higher Education member Christina Royal at a meeting Tuesday morning. Royal is a former president of Holyoke Community College.
The data presented to the board on Tuesday also showed an increase in the percentage of community college students completing credits on time.
It tracked full-time students completing 24 or more credits in their first year, and part-time students accumulating at least 12 credits. This percentage of students has been steadily increasing since 2011, when it was at just 22.1 percent.
Last year, 33.2 percent of community college students hit that goal. The board is aiming to have 40 percent of students earn this target amount of credits each year by 2033.
“In community college this is a positive story. The overall rate remains low at 33 percent, but progress has been going up,” said Mario Delci, association commissioner of research and planning at the Department of Higher Education.