KCTCS: Enrollment receding, but maybe not degrees?

It's easy to see the Great Recession in this chart of KCTCS enrollment. There was some rapid growth in the years when jobs were especially hard to find (and federal supports made added learning easier to afford), but a noticeable decline as the economy has recovered.

That enrollment decline makes it especially interesting to see associate degrees still climbing as of last year.  Since students who started in 2011 could be expected to finish in 2013 or 2014, 2015 may be our year to see a drop off.  Even so, the deeper education benefits of those degrees will last for decades, providing a rare silver lining to the difficult economy of the recent past.

 

Source: the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education's data portal, looking under student enrollment and under retention and graduation rates.

.