With Missouri lawmakers looking at allowing more public universities to offer advanced degrees, one might wonder: Why not allow community colleges to offer more four-year degrees?

Community colleges are typically more affordable and more accessible than most four-year institutions; indeed, the state purposely spread its 12 community colleges out to cover every region.

The Missouri Community College Association (MCCA) isn’t pressing to offer four-year degrees, but would respond if students, communities or lawmakers see the need, President and CEO Brian Millner tells The Heartlander.

“I don’t know that I would say it’s like a top priority for us, but if that is what students need or the business community or the state of Missouri sort of thinks is the best way to get through a degree and attain a degree, that’s what we’re here for,” Millner says.

Thanks in large part to a push to offer more degrees by Missouri State University and its backers, a bill moving through the state Senate would reduce or eliminate the University of Missouri System’s exclusivity in offering certain advanced degrees.

“State law currently bars other public colleges from offering research doctorates and first-professional degrees, which includes areas like dentistry and veterinary medicine,” reports the Missouri Independent. “Public universities also are only allowed to offer degrees in podiatry, chiropractic, osteopathic medicine and engineering if they have a partnership with the University of Missouri in those programs.

“A bill sponsored by state Sen. Lincoln Hough, a Republican from Springfield, seeks to remove these restrictions.”

Lifting such restrictions for four-year institutions could lead to doing the same for community colleges – opening the door for full four-year diplomas for more Missourians.

“I think there is some growing support for the issue nationally,” Millner says. While even his organization isn’t pushing for four-year community colleges here, he says nationally “it’s got to be pushing 15 or 20 states that do that.”

The demand may already be there: Millner says of community college enrollment, “We’ve seen enrollment increases this spring following an increase in the fall, and things are pretty well on an uptick.”

Interestingly, the recent increase has been in the traditional recent high school graduate cohort; the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have cut into older-student enrollment, perhaps as parents had to choose between taking care of kids at home or taking classes.

“We certainly lost some adult students during that period that have not found their way back to a community college,” he says.

And yet, enrollment is still ticking up at community colleges due to an influx of traditional students, Millner says, as “students are beginning to make probably more informed financial decisions about college, and seeing the value of community college.”

Why would students choose a community college?

“Well, I think there are a lot of reasons,” Millner says. 

“In Missouri, we have the A+ scholarship, which is well-supported politically and utilized by many students across the state. A+ covers students’ tuition for their first two years at a community college.  

“It’s a pretty incredible program. It requires some skin in the game, so to speak, where the students have to have a 95% attendance rate in high school, they have to do some community service and they have to have good grades. And if they do those things, then the state of Missouri offers this scholarship so they can attend community colleges.  

“Community college is a less expensive option, either to get a degree – associate’s degree in most cases – or to begin your journey in college with the intention of transferring and going on to a bachelor’s or something further.”

One big problem with the latter – and the focus of MCCA’s current lobbying in Jefferson City – is that too often a four-year college doesn’t accept class credits from a community college.

That means a transfer student often has to take a similar class over at the four-year college, costing both unnecessary money and time toward a degree.

Millner says legislation working its way through the Missouri Legislature – and which has had bipartisan, even unanimous support in the past – “would require the colleges and universities to get together with the Department of Higher Ed and create a lower division block of courses – the 60 credit hours that a student could take really anywhere, any public institution in Missouri, get their first two years out of the way and then transfer to a different institution and they would know that those credits would transfer toward their degree program.”

It’s likely offering four-year degrees at the state’s 12 community colleges would also solve the transfer problem.

Until that happens, Millner says, “I think we’re really just focused on student success and serving our students and being a good partner for the business community in the state.”