Little research has been done to examine how the awarding of bachelors degrees, by community colleges, influences the traditional associate degree-granting role of these institutions. This quantitative study investigates the impact of this change on the community colleges that have been allowed to award bachelors degrees, examining how this change affects the traditional associate degree granting output of these institutions. The population for this study is all public community colleges in the United States that offer associate degrees, including those awarding bachelors degrees. A data query was used to collect the data for this study from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) database. In the full sample, there was a correlation between the number of associate degrees awarded and whether a bachelors degree was offered. Schools that offered bachelors degrees tended to have higher numbers of associate degrees awarded. In the subsample of schools that offered bachelors degrees, there was a moderate positive correlation between the number of bachelor and associate degrees awarded. The number of associate degrees awarded was undiminished by the initiation of a bachelors degree program at two-year schools. As such, this study may indicate successful higher education marketplace competition, with community colleges evolving to offer bachelors degrees while successfully continuing their traditional associate degree-granting role. This study indicates that the awarding of associate and bachelors degrees is not mutually exclusive. The one can be conducive to the other. A successful synergy can be established. The community college bachelors may make sense as a competitive, market driven response to a societal need. Public community colleges that began to offer, over the last ten years, a four-year baccalaureate degree to meet higher education needs, in addition to the traditional two-year associate degree, are accomplishing this dual mission effectively. This conclusion is supported by the findings of this study and facts in the published literature. More states need to allow community colleges to offer bachelors degrees. In this way, the legislatures could recognize the reality of the educational and economic development needs of place-bound, non-traditional students who have increased the demand for localized bachelors degree programs.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-09102012-193745 |
| Date | 24 September 2012 |
| Creators | Wesse, David Joseph |
| Contributors | Mitchell, Roland W., Marks, Loren D., Burnett, Michael F., Verma, Satish |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-09102012-193745/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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