Fall Quarter Reports
The Report
The Fall Enrollment and Staffing Report provides a snapshot of enrollments in community and technical colleges during fall quarter.
In addition to analysis of the system as a whole, this report includes an extensive set of tables by college. The report addresses the questions most commonly raised regarding the community and technical colleges in Washington.
Data on outcomes, facilities, and staffing are reported annually in the companion Academic Year Report.
Highlights of Fall Quarter 2008
- Total enrollments, in all funding sources, increased 8.2 percent to 168,240 full-time equivalent (FTES).
- State-supported enrollments increased 7.2 percent from Fall 2007 to 133,919 FTES enrollments. This represented a 9,025 FTE year-to-year increase, the largest since the 1970s.
- With the FTES increase, the number of state-supported students served in Washington’s community and technical colleges also increased by 4.1 percent to 198,474 students in fall 2008 compared with 190,600 students in fall 2007.
- Some 46 percent of state-supported FTES were generated by students enrolled for workforce training purposes, 40 percent by students preparing for transfer, 11 percent by students with an immediate goal to increase literacy or English as a second language (ESL) skills, and 4 percent by students enrolled for parenting classes or other purposes. This distribution is consistent with enrollment patterns for the decade.
- The racial/ethnic composition of the student population in fall 2008 was more diverse than that of the state as a whole – 35 percent students of color at community and technical colleges compared with an estimated 24 percent people of color in the state population.
- Due to population growth among the under 20 years of age population, the number of younger students grew and the median age of students in state-supported classes dropped slightly to 26. Transfer students (median age of 21 years) were a significantly younger group than workforce training students, who had a median age of 29 years old. Students taking basic skills classes had a median age of 30 years old.
- Opportunity Grants, a new financial aid that started in AY 2005-06, served 2,985 students in fall 2008, I-BEST programs that pair workforce and basic skills instructors in the classroom enrolled 993 students (893 FTES).
- Learning and distance education continued to experience substantial growth (24 percent). State-supported enrollment increased to 43,264 students from 36,045 in fall 2007 (19,167 FTES compared with 15,493 FTES). State-supported online learning enrollment rose by 26 percent to 13,426 FTES. Online instruction contributes 14 percent of the total state-supported FTES.
- Programs for high school students continued to experience growth in fall 2008. The number of Running Start FTES grew by 4.9 percent in fall 2008 to 12,108 FTES (15,580 students). College in the High School and alternative high school enrollments also increased slightly to 2,809 FTES (4,033 students) in fall 2008. All dual enrollments contributes 9 percent of total FTES.
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