What’s a “non-completer”?
Is that what we used to call a dropout?
With such high demand nationally for people who can actually DO SOMETHING USEFUL, I’d bet that many of those ‘non-completers’ latch on to good paying jobs before they’re even finished.
While basic familiarity with the lib arts can be instructive, snowflake ‘degrees’ don’t keep the country running.
STEM programs aside, much of the above is over-priced babysitting.
Gee whiz! They figured out that adding all the BS courses to trade schools in order to make them a “college” was a losing idea.
I went to a trade school. The only thing taught was whatever it took to equip a student to enter a trade. A few years later that same school required all kinds baggage the student had to take before getting a sheep skin in the electrical, plumbing, carpentry etc trades.
Betcha later on politically correct “studies” courses were also optional or mandatory.
Higher education is not about higher learning but higher incomes for the schools and let’s not forget brainwashing.
If they think that graduation rates are low now, just wait until Community College is "free" for everybody!
I had to put a lot of children through college.
One method was to give them a couple of years in a local community college, and then have them transfer to a good four-year college for their degrees.
I want to take transmission rebuilding courses.
In the Visual Arts a degree means nothing!
Employers want a solid portfolio. Even then, regardless of the prestige of the college or university, workers without experience start at rock bottom.
After retiring I started taking classes at the local community college with a major in the Visual Arts. My fellow classmates are passionate about acquiring skills. The degree itself has very low priority.
Community colleges offering two-year associate degrees are useful in three ways.
1. They are cheap. The cost is less than half, often less than a quarter the cost of four-year state colleges.
2. The give students a chance to prove they have the ability and drive to pass college courses. Those who earn two-year degrees usually take a 50-50 mix of curriculum specific and liberal arts/general education courses. Acceptance and transfer to four-year programs is almost automatic upon graduation with a decent GPA. A 2+2 or in the case of students who transfer into an unrelated major a 2+3 year bachelor’s degree is easily attainable for those graduates.
3. They offer skill related courses for those who aren’t seeking a college degree.
I taught accounting and business computing courses at a major university for 35 years. We offered an associate degree on the four-year campus. We had a large contingent of adult students who wanted to learn accounting, spreadsheet and database management skills. In other departments one could learn welding, dairy operations, surveying, AutoCad, baking, greenhouse operations and even tree climbing (urban forestry).
While a large percentage of two-year students are ill prepared for math and college English, another significant group show up to learn job related skills. For me, sadly, I was never able to sit in on the welding classes. I was always teaching freshman financial accounting at those times.
Like I always told my students, you can stand at the door and say “welcome to WalMart” or you can learn double entry bookkeeping and sit at a computer in the air conditioned office making three times as much as the greeter. You don’t need the sheepskin if you can write macros in Excel.