Harford Community College enrollment decline continues at start of fall 2016 semester

The fall 2016 semester is in swing at Harford Community College, but there are fewer students this fall compared to last year, as the college's enrollment continues to slide.The current head count of for-credit students stands at 5,988, a 5.8 percent drop from 6,355 students during the 2015 fall semester, according to figures provided to the HCC Board of Trustees Tuesday evening.The full-time equivalent rate, which measures full and part-time students, is 3,612.6, a 6.5 percent decrease from last year's rate of 3,863.5. The total number of credit hours has dropped by 6.5 percent, from 57,938 last year to 54,190 this year.Enrollment in two-year and four-year colleges peaked nationwide in 2010, and it peaked at HCC in 2012, when 7,256 students were enrolled for the fall semester, Deborah Cruise, vice president of student affairs and institutional effectiveness, said.&quot;The theory, of course, is that correlates with the economy,&quot; she noted.Cruise showed a graph that indicates national two-year college enrollment will gradually rise, from a dip of 6.7 million students in 2014, to 8.2 million students by 2025. She said the national projection is in line with HCC projections, and enrollment will grow &quot;after we get out of this slump.&quot;Trustee John Haggerty asked where the greatest drop in head count is happening now. He suspected HCC is losing more &quot;transitional&quot; students coming from high school, but Cruise said students age 41 and older make up the majority of the overall losses.She noted enrollment of first-time students has increased, and the college has a &quot;large market share&quot; of local high school graduates, but enrollment has declined among students taking continuing education classes, as well as among students 41 and older and age 24 and younger.Many programs are in place to recruit and retain students, including student support networks, tutoring, instructional support and financial aid.The college also uses multiple marketing tools, such as reminders to students about registration and seeing an advisor, outreach to high school students, radio and television ads, &quot;everything we can think of,&quot; Cruise said.College officials have also commissioned an ongoing marketing study, and they have a strategic enrollment plan, which includes staffers at all levels.&quot;Enrollment and retention of students is the job that all of us do,&quot; Cruise said.New President Dianna Phillips, who spoke extensively about tackling enrollment in her first trustees meeting last month, did not make any comments after Cruise's report, nor did any of the trustees have any comments or questions.Haggerty brought up enrollment earlier in the meeting during a discussion about transitional, or remedial, reading, writing and math courses for incoming students, as math professor Chris Jones noted &quot;almost 60 percent of our students need at least one transitional course.&quot;Haggerty said the impact on student retention &quot;has been a gnawing problem over the years.&quot;&quot;It's very frustrating to me because we're losing these people,&quot; he said.Phillips, who met with Harford County Public Schools Superintendent Barbara Canavan Monday, said &quot;there are models throughout the country that are addressing this very issue&quot; of remedial coursework.&quot;We've sort of changed the curriculum in the K-12 world and made it more challenging,&quot; Phillips said. &quot;That's just a reality that we have to contend with.&quot;More students complete coursesEnrollment might be declining, but the number of students completing their coursework and earning a degree or certificate is increasing, according to the college's 2016 Performance Accountability Report, which is being submitted to the Maryland Higher Education Commission.Colleges and universities across the state must submit reports each year reflecting their progress toward meeting MHEC benchmarks for student and community services, according to HCC's report.The &quot;successful-persister rate,&quot; and the number of degrees and certificates awarded are &quot;bottom-line&quot; measures of how students are doing, Valerie Swain, director for institutional research, planning and effectiveness, said.The successful persister rate, as of 2015, shows 80 percent of all students completing their coursework, the highest rate among five community colleges in different parts of the state, including the Community College of Baltimore County, the College of Southern Maryland, Frederick Community College and Howard Community College.&quot;These are very respectable numbers, very, very respectable,&quot; President Dianna Phillips said.HCC has the fourth-lowest number of degrees and certificates awarded among the same colleges last year, but the college has exceeded its goals for degrees awarded each year since 2011, according to the report. The college hit a four-year high in fiscal 2016, with 1,059 degrees and certificates.

Harford Community College enrollment decline continues at start of fall 2016 semester

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