Increasingly, students worldwide are seeking post-secondary education to acquire new skill-sets and credentials. There is an explosion of community college models that provide educational opportunities and alternative pathways for students who do not fit the traditional higher educational profile. This book focuses on economic models to help local and national economies develop strong workforce training, humanitarian models to bring about social mobility and peace, transformative models to help institutions expand and keep up with societal needs, and newly created models that respond to the educational and training needs of a constantly changing world. These models seek to capture the imagination of those who are committed to learning about what works in higher education and in particular, the impact community college models are having on the changing nature of world social, political and economic landscapes. With contributors representing 30 countries, this book presents an international perspective.

In the United States, 1,200 community colleges enroll over ten million students each year—nearly half of the nation’s undergraduates. Yet fewer than 40 percent of entrants complete an undergraduate degree within six years. This fact has put pressure on community colleges to improve academic outcomes for their students. Redesigning America’s Community Colleges is a concise, evidence-based guide for educational leaders whose institutions typically receive short shrift in academic and policy discussions. It makes a compelling case that two-year colleges can substantially increase their rates of student success, if they are willing to rethink the ways in which they organize programs of study, support services, and instruction. Community colleges were originally designed to expand college enrollments at low cost, not to maximize completion of high-quality programs of study. The result was a cafeteria-style model in which students pick courses from a bewildering array of choices, with little guidance. The authors urge administrators and faculty to reject this traditional model in favor of “guided pathways”—clearer, more educationally coherent programs of study that simplify students’ choices without limiting their options and that enable them to complete credentials and advance to further education and the labor market more quickly and at less cost. Distilling a wealth of data amassed from the Community College Research Center (Teachers College, Columbia University), Redesigning America’s Community Colleges offers a fundamental redesign of the way two-year colleges operate, stressing the integration of services and instruction into more clearly structured programs of study that support every student’s goals.

Community colleges were established to provide an accessible, affordable education and have largely met this charge. Access without success, however, does not benefit the student and traditional planning, operational and financial management, and infinite enrollment growth strategies have not produced positive student outcomes. The Great Recession, disinvestment in higher education, and increasing costs and competition have further exacerbated the inability to deliver better results. Community colleges need an operational framework structured for student success. The community college needs a redesigned business model. This publication breaks new ground by introducing the community college business model (CCBM), an intentionally designed operational management approach that provides a comprehensive approach to understanding students and meeting student needs by providing an exceptional educational experience. Supported by a fiscal management that targets finances to support student learning and success, the model guides the reader through the growth, development, and leveraging of the resources (human, physical, and intellectual) necessary for delivering a successful educational journey. The CCBM is designed to restructure community colleges for delivery of a student value proposition built on learning and success. The philosophical underpinning of the book is that student success is the ultimate measure of organizational effectiveness.

Two-year colleges are facing major change. The majority will undergo a turnover in college presidencies in the next ten years, at a time when they are being asked to be engines for economic growth, enable more students - and a greater diversity of students - to gain 21st century qualifications, and provide a pathway to higher degrees, all with reduced state and local funding. Recognizing that future community college leaders - at all levels- will manage increasingly complex organizations, and face very different challenges than their predecessors, this book provides a multidimensional model of leadership suited to these new demands and environments. The model addresses issues of leader cognition, race and gender, the importance of culture, and the need for more collaborative modes of communication and decision making to frame and implement change. It recognizes that there is no longer any one way to lead, and that the next generation of leaders will be more diverse, possess experience and qualifications from a wider variety of careers, and follow new pathways to their positions. Leaders in the future will possess a cultural competency that is fostered by being lifelong learners.Through over 75 individual interviews with leaders and campus members, Eddy is able to provide examples of the model's components in practice and to illuminate which experiences proved the most relevant for these leaders on their route to upper administration. She shows how her model intersects with the leadership competencies defined by the American Association of Community Colleges, and proposes strategies for future leadership development. This book is intended for anyone considering a leadership position, at any level, in a community college; for college administrators and boards responsible for leadership development programs; and for individuals in corresponding organizations who conduct training programs for aspiring leaders. Likewise, those employed at four-year universities may find value in the model as a developmental tool.

While the community college is a longstanding institutional type within the U.S., the success of this model has recently garnered international attention. As countries outside the U.S. grapple with issues regarding access and affordability of higher education opportunity, the concept of the community college has gained traction. This issue explores: The global expansion and development of the community college model in various countries and regions around the world, Insights into the establishment and sustainability of these institutions in other countries through research and analysis, and Case studies that focus on the development and implementation process of community colleges amid various social, political, and economic contexts. This is the 177th volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Essential to the professional libraries of presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today's open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.

This book seeks to explore thematic and pragmatic applications of financing the community college to help facilitate educational reform, to assist efforts related to internationalization and to create systemic support systems to maintain the mission.