4-year degrees explored for SWCC

Iowa legislators have tasked the state’s 15 community colleges with discovering the feasibility of adding four-year programs to their campuses in reaction to an estimated 300% increase in Iowa jobs requiring bachelor’s degrees by 2031.

Nationally, there are reports of employers having significant issues in filling positions due to a lack of qualified candidates, specifically in healthcare, IT, manufacturing and the skilled trades. States around the country have been working to combat this by having community colleges offer baccalaureate programs.

“There are now 203 community colleges in 24 states now offering over 700 baccalaureate degrees,” Southwestern Community College President Lindsay Stoaks said Tuesday at a board of trustees meeting. “The growing trend comes from the concern about the accessibility and affordability of these degrees in a time when more and more careers are requiring them.”

Looking to the future, this may be a major issue in Iowa. Iowa Community Colleges report that there is a significant mismatch between current degree holders (109,587) versus the 2031 projected demand (388,000 jobs).

In addition to higher demand in degree holders, there are various regions of the state that are considered education deserts.

“Among Iowa’s 15 community colleges, many lie in a region that they tag as an ‘educational desert,’ with no nearby four-year public institution options,” Stoaks said. “Specifically, there are four community college regions that have no nearby public or private institutions. Those would include Iowa Lakes, Iowa Central, Iowa Western and Southeastern.”

Since January, Iowa’s community colleges have been gathering data to see if adding baccalaureate programs would be possible, and if so, what it would look like.

“The good news is the vast majority of our community college faculty are already meeting the bachelor’s level teaching standards set forth by our own accrediting body, the higher learning commission,” Stoaks said. “Faculty would meet teaching qualifications, teaching loads would need to be adjusted if any colleges were to pursue this. In addition to that, just taking a look at, as you’re expanding bachelor’s degree programs, for some institutions, they may need to expand classrooms and labs.”

If community colleges were allowed to create four-year programs, maximum authority for the program would be given to the individual college board of trustees. Just because one community college would go forward with the program does not mean all community colleges would have to.

Additionally, the incorporation of bachelor’s degrees at community colleges would not mean the institute is becoming a full university. Instead, these tracks would highlight programs already held at the community college that are part of the projected needed fields, such as healthcare.

“I can see a possible baccalaureate program for our nursing program, maybe business administration, maybe complete a four-year for criminal justice; there’s a high need for that,” SWCC Board President Tony Cass said. “[These are] things that we may not necessarily be competing with that four-year institution, but I’m sure they’ll have some concerns moving forward.”

While Iowa universities have not yet made a statement on the study, comments are expected after the final report is given to legislators Oct. 31.

“The first step will be concluding the report here at the end of October, and then it will be interesting to see if that’s something lawmakers are really serious about and want to put out there and see what that process looks like in the upcoming legislative session,” Stoaks said. “The absolute earliest a community college baccalaureate degree program could be implemented would be the fall of 2027.”