A Policy and Practice Guide to Supporting Bachelor’s Programs at Rural Community Colleges

A Policy and Practice Guide to Supporting Bachelor's Programs at Rural Community Colleges

Brief

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Introduction

Community college bachelor's (CCB) programs are a relatively new phenomenon in American higher education, emerging within the last 25 years. Since then, 24 states have authorized at least some public community colleges to offer at least one bachelor's degree program. State policy varies widely on the scope and scale allowed for community college bachelor's programs, but across states the degrees focus on meeting local workforce demands. Since local labor market demands differ within and across states, a range of community college bachelor's programs to address workforce needs have emerged.

Rural areas have an extra incentive for starting bachelor's programs. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as of 2021, only 21 percent of working-age rural residents held a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 37 percent in metropolitan areas. Millions of prospective college students live in areas where the only local public college is a community college. Short of these institutions offering bachelor's degrees, there may be no affordable local option to advance their education. For rural communities, limited access to bachelor's degrees at four-year institutions may drive rural community colleges to offer bachelor's programs, with special attention to local economic development and workforce needs.

While urban, suburban, and rural community colleges share many of the same successes and trials of proposing and launching a bachelor's program, some are more specific to the rural context. Rural-serving community colleges tend to have smaller enrollment than those in more densely populated areas, which has implications for faculty and staff capacity, new program financing, and recruitment strategies. However, some such institutions have successfully launched and are currently operating bachelor's programs. This brief outlines how policymakers and practitioners might help support rural-serving community colleges to successfully propose, develop, and sustain bachelor's programs that benefit their communities.

Data and Methods

In October and November 2024, I conducted six interviews with program and administrative leaders at rural-serving community colleges, asking about the development of their bachelor's programs and useful policies and practices as they implement and sustain them. Interviewees came from Arizona, California, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, and Wyoming. Five interviewees were faculty; four of whom also held program administration roles. The sixth interviewee's role was in college administration and was closely connected to bachelor's program proposals and development. I integrated examples and insight from these interviews with state legislative and regulatory policy analysis to yield four recommendations for policymakers and practitioners.

State Legislation and Regulation

For most states that allow community college bachelor's (CCB) programs, authorization was a result of new legislation. For others, regulatory policy changes within state higher education systems or agencies established the opportunity for community colleges to propose bachelor's programs. States with regulatory CCB authorization alone are mostly those that established this opportunity a relatively long time ago. The parameters placed on the authorization and development of CCB programs varies by state, and some policies are friendlier to rural-serving community college bachelor's program development than others.

A theme from the interviews was the need for CCB authorization to grant community colleges the flexibility to develop bachelor's programs that address local community and labor market needs, without arbitrary restrictions to pacify other stakeholders. Tension often comes from universities and other historically bachelor's degree-conferring colleges that are concerned about competing for students if community colleges expand their offerings. However, in almost all CCB-authorizing states, community colleges must demonstrate a local or regional labor market need for graduates before launching a new bachelor's program. As a lead faculty member in a teacher education program put it, "If I were talking to state legislators, the one thing that I would say to best support rural colleges is to create legislation that is highly flexible and capable of letting the institution identify the needs."

Some states, such as Michigan and South Carolina, limit CCB authorization to named areas of study. While these policies may pacify stakeholders who are concerned about program duplication and competition for students, they also impede community colleges from responding to local workforce needs with new bachelor's program outside the areas permitted by state legislation or regulation. This limitation can be especially challenging for rural-serving colleges without a nearby four-year institution offering a bachelor's program outside what state CCB policy allows. Interviewees insisted that well-considered state CCB policy enables their colleges to align program offerings with local labor market demand, rather than being constrained by statewide restrictions on area of study.

Another state CCB policy that can disadvantage rural institutions is restricting authorization on the basis of population density or local tax revenue. Two states, Idaho and Texas, have such CCB policies in place. Idaho state statute says, "The board of trustees of a community college district of an urban area…shall thereafter be authorized and empowered to organize and operate an upper division consisting of the third and fourth years of college curriculum," with an "urban area" defined as a community college district with at least 90,000 residents and a taxable property base of at least $350 million.

In Texas, a community college taxing district (notably smaller than the college service area) must have at least $6 billion in taxable property to propose a bachelor's program in most subjects. For a nursing bachelor's degree, the threshold is $4 billion in taxable property. Limiting CCB programs to institutions with higher tax bases-in other words, wealthier districts-may help ensure strong funding, but it also limits opportunities for rural institutions with a lower tax base that could benefit greatly from starting the programs they need. With state support, community colleges could launch needed programs, helping more local residents earn a high-value degree, and improving the local economy.

Most individuals interviewed started their college's bachelor's program without start-up assistance from their state specifically allocated for CCB programs. However, all confronted significant expenses while planning and launching their programs. Interviewees described funding that ranged from state Perkins resources to a competitive state workforce grant and private foundation grants. Two interviewees, one in a Western state and one in the Midwest, could access funds specifically allocated for CCB development and launch.

The state funding formulae did not vary significantly between associate- and bachelor-level classes for most interviewees. However, several noted the higher cost of delivering upper-division courses, due to equipment needs and instruction costs, for example. Regardless of the cost of delivering bachelor's degree courses, interviewees indicated that they were committed to not passing these additional costs on to students. Instead, they have been able, thus far, to draw on grants to make up the difference. Adjusting state full-time enrollment (FTE) funding could help make up the difference, saving colleges from having to pursue new and renewable grants to meet costs in order to offer a needed program to their service area.

Program Development

Once a new CCB program has been proposed and approved, colleges must develop all aspects of it. A clear theme that emerged from interviews was that faculty and staff faced constraints when developing courses and setting logistical pieces in place. Some colleges were able to provide faculty a buyout of some of their course teaching load to devote to program development.

Colleges may need additional instructors for upper-division courses, depending on recruitment and enrollment. However, hiring for these positions may prove difficult for a few reasons. Depending on the requirements of regional- and program-level accreditors, it may be necessary to hire faculty with terminal degrees if current faculty lack those credentials. It might be difficult to find qualified faculty at rural-serving institutions. As one administrator in a Western state said, "Both our state and our accreditor expect that upper-division courses are taught by people with master's degrees and not the normal [career and technical education] CTE qualifications. That becomes a step more difficult to find people to teach those classes."

For those who are qualified for faculty roles, salaries may be considerably lower than industry wages, especially in nursing and allied health. A faculty member at a Midwest community college noted the challenge of instructional costs for their program and others in the same sector: "Our faculty is expensive because we could simply just leave and go work at a hospital and make more money than we make teaching. So you have to hire people at a higher price point."

An expensive but crucial aspect of CCB programs in health sciences is ensuring accessible, well-equipped laboratories and facilities for simulated learning exercises. Public or private funding may be needed to enhance existing labs or construct new ones, especially to ensure that labs are geographically accessible. For some rural-serving colleges, service areas can be so large that some students may need to drive several hours to the main college campus, as a few interviewees highlighted. Ensuring the availability of labs throughout the college's service area presents considerable costs. Furthermore, colleges and policymakers must consider not only the cost of equipping labs and classrooms but also the ongoing expenses of maintaining these facilities; service agreements to keep up essential equipment can be costly.

Enrollment

With a program developed and ready to welcome students, rural-serving community college leaders must then recruit new students, paying attention to enrollment capacity and long-term sustainability. Through interviews, several key themes emerged around effective enrollment strategies for CCB programs in more sparsely populated areas.

Recruitment Strategies

Colleges use a wide variety of recruitment strategies and admissions procedures for their bachelor's programs. One Midwest college follows a "never say no" strategy-faculty and staff welcome any opportunity to engage with the community about their program and the rewarding career that follows, whether at job fairs or in elementary school classrooms where kids are learning about health science careers.

A program in the Southwest emphasized the importance of community visibility, even beyond the bachelor's program. This interviewee said that serving on a community organization board and prioritizing civic engagement are ways they make the college and its programs visible. For a college in the West, a key driver of enrollment has been word of mouth among employers hiring out of the bachelor's program and hosting students for clinicals, as well as word of mouth among students themselves. While more formal program promotion is also in place, the personal aspect of word-of-mouth promotion has brought in additional interest from prospective students.

At a Midwest institution, faculty members are mindful that a respiratory therapy career is less well-known than other health roles, particularly nursing. For this reason, bachelor's program faculty personally reach out to students interested in an allied health program who may need-or simply want-another option if they are not accepted to the nursing program or if they decide a career they anticipated pursuing may not be something they want after all. Students are notified about the bachelor's program and provided with information about career opportunities and associated wages in the area. While the volume of such personal emails might be high, the strategy has yielded significant interest in the respiratory therapy program.

Admissions and Transfer Policy

Once prospective students apply, colleges' admissions and transfer-in policies vary considerably. At most of the colleges where faculty or program directors were interviewed, they said they processed bachelor's applications, rather than college admissions staff, especially for programs in highly technical fields. The rural-serving CCB program leaders I spoke to all wanted to ensure that their programs could cast a wide recruitment and admissions net and benefit as many people in the community, with as wide an array of backgrounds, as possible. Their strategies to achieve this end varied and provide examples for other colleges to consider.

For one college in the Southwest, it was important to establish a credit articulation policy within the school and with other community colleges in the state. Leaders created a policy to articulate lower-division credits from the associate degree program as a block instead of a course-by-course credit articulation policy that could have caused students to lose credits in the internal or external transfer process. This strategy simplified the bachelor's program admissions process and clarified communication about the opportunity available for prospective bachelor's degree students. A college in the Midwest prioritized flexibility for working students in various fields who may be ready to start upper-division classes while fulfilling some lower-division requirements. This institution worked with its registrar so that bachelor's program students could be simultaneously enrolled in the associate program so they could access financial aid for all classes. This unanticipated challenge was addressed by the college's commitment to flexibility allowed it to welcome students with existing credits and work experience.

Right-Sizing Program Enrollment

The rural-serving community colleges I surveyed also had to consider the ideal enrollment level for each bachelor's program. Several factors affect how many students they can and do admit, including local labor market needs, faculty capacity, and availability of clinical/practicum placements, where applicable. For some, state policy may dictate an acceptable enrollment floor to justify the continued existence of an academic program. One interviewee's Western state requires a minimum student enrollment, with programs facing state review or termination if enrollment falls below the threshold. However, this bachelor's program, offered at an institution with a large, sparsely populated service area, serves a critical unmet need. Through discussion with state officials, the college communicated why a program with a high operating cost and small enrollment provides important services to local communities.

Multiple interviewees advised a gradual approach to enrollment rather than, as one put it, chasing the "shiny object" of a bachelor's program that may yield an initial spike of enrollment, followed by a bust. Instead, it may be more reasonable to accept low enrollment in the first few years as the program becomes established and gains recognition in the community. This measured approach helps determine the optimal enrollment level, one that takes into account local demand for graduates and instructional or clinical capacity. "We created small cohorts that will come in cycles. So, I'm never overwhelming my current faculty. I'm never overwhelming my programming or our scheduling. I'm never overwhelming our space," said one faculty member at a college in the Southwest. "Yes, it's great for enrollment to build up. But more importantly, it's about bringing what the community needs to the community and having a quality program. Starting with small cohorts and learning as you grow and building as you grow has been the most significant lesson learned and the most important positive thing that we did so far." A slow enrollment climb to a sustainable level will be kinder to institutions than aiming too high too soon and risking an unsustainable enrollment dip later.

Program Operations

The operation of CCB programs is tied closely to students' work status and geographic proximity to campus. Our interviews revealed three areas of interest regarding how CCBs at rural-serving community colleges are structured to best meet students' needs. While much of our discussion focused on course delivery, we also explored student services and how they may need to be adapted for bachelor's students.

What surfaced quickly in several interviews is that rural-serving colleges had been offering hybrid and hy-flex courses before these became common during the pandemic. As one interviewee put it, "We cover 22,000 square miles, so we've always done that. We had the infrastructure at our college because of the connected classroom system…All our five campuses are connected via Webex. So the instructor is on one of those campuses somewhere, and it's live." Colleges with large service areas had already developed a variety of modalities, even within the same course, to engage students who could not commute frequently. While college leaders said that the technology for hy-flex courses could be expensive, they emphasized that this modality makes things work for far-flung students.

Remote course models were not limited to lecture courses, but two colleges we interviewed used these for laboratory courses. These colleges needed to purchase costly equipment and remote learning technology to ensure students at remote lab sites could benefit from the same experience as students on the main campus. In these courses, instructors-typically on the main campus-lecture and provide tailored guidance via video, while cameras installed throughout the labs allow students in other locations to interact with each other and the instructor. Flexible course models and multi-location course delivery can come with some challenges in hiring lab technicians or other staff to be on site for support, but this can also alleviate the need to hire faculty for multiple locations in the service area for one course.

For lecture courses, several rural-serving college leaders indicated that asynchronous online learning has seemed to work best. This strategy can work well if students are highly dispersed, likely to be working, and the course content is primarily didactic material, as opposed to hands-on or task-based. One Midwest college used hy-flex models and synchronous online learning for lecture courses with tech similar to what was described for the laboratories at peer institutions above: cameras throughout the classroom and an interface designed to replicate as closely as possible having students and the instructor in the same room. A lead faculty member said, "We make it as close to an in-person setting as we can."

A faculty member at a college in a Western state noted that the college was primarily welcoming adult students to its bachelor's program and that these students preferred online courses, because of work and family responsibilities. However, in recent years, an increasing number of recent high school graduates have enrolled, and, unlike their older peers, they have expressed a preference for in-person learning.

As for services and supports outside the classroom, offering a bachelor's program may or may not change things for a rural-serving community college. First of all, as with community colleges in most geographic settings, many students in these programs are already working. For this reason, career services that focus on initial employment in a given field may be less useful for students if they are focusing on advancement. Even for students pursuing a bachelor's degree related to their current occupation, a goal may be advancement rather than a different job, so college career services are likely not a major factor in achieving this goal. For those using the bachelor's program to transition into a new field, interviewees said that many are hired at their clinical/practicum sites as soon as they have earned their degree. While many community colleges may have designated advisors up to the associate level, interviewees for this brief indicated that they saw a reliance on faculty advising at the bachelor's level.

Work-Based Learning

While didactic coursework may be delivered primarily or exclusively online, work-based learning tend to take place in person. Student teaching and other clinical experiences that are part of bachelor's programs are usually completed in person. Interviewees tended to agree that securing clinical and other required work-based learning placements, especially in sufficient numbers and in locations that work for their students, is one of the biggest challenges in developing a bachelor's program.

State occupational or professional boards may require a certain number of clinical or practical training hours to meet professional licensure or degree requirements. And though the challenge of securing enough clinical placements is not unique to rural-serving institutions, the additional consideration of distance makes it an even bigger factor in these settings. If the need for practitioners in a given occupation is currently unmet or strained, there may be local labor market needs without the capacity to offer sufficient local clinical placements. In health care, for example, supervision of student clinicals takes time and effort that preceptors and mentors cannot then use for patient care. Students may have to go further afield for the depth and breadth of clinical training they need.

In sparsely populated areas, both clinical sites and students may be widely dispersed. People I interviewed at two different colleges described the lengths some students must go to in order to complete these requirements. While one college in the West attempts to place students at sites within a reasonable commuting distance, capacity limitations mean some students have a seven-hour drive to access a clinical site. Additionally, clinicals in this program may take up nearly as many hours as a full-time job, and for this reason, program leaders inform prospective students and incoming students that temporary relocation may be necessary in order to complete their clinical requirements.

At a college in the Midwest, some clinical placements for bachelor's students are within reasonable commuting distance, but these tend to be smaller hospitals with less complex equipment and less complex cases. For this reason, many students in the program either opt to or must take a placement a few hours away to gain experience with a wider variety of clinical tasks at a larger hospital in a mid-size or major city. In both cases, clinicals are far from convenient. Completing these requirements demands careful planning, and, in some cases, additional resources for travel or relocation.

Conclusion

Rural-serving community colleges in authorizing states across the country are identifying community needs that a new bachelor's program could meet and building what works for their labor market and their students. "Having this opportunity in a rural area is wonderful," said one program director and lead faculty. "I grew up around here, and I had to move two states over to get my degree."

To conclude the interviews for this brief, CCB program faculty and administrators were asked what they would say to state lawmakers about CCBs if given the opportunity. It was clear from discussion with these leaders that initial program costs may present challenges, and developing a cost-effective plan for a sustainable program was complex. However, no interviewee expressed regret over having to manage these challenges. As one lead faculty member said, "It might be hard. It might be an uphill battle, but in my experience, it has been 100 percent worth it. When you get to meet with the students and…realize that you could meet them where they are and help them find a better path that they want to be on, it's completely worth it." And with well-designed state policy and institutional strategy, these programs can go on to serve local students sustainably.

Recommendations

When local community and labor market needs call for a new bachelor's program, community colleges can welcome new students with a range of life and work experiences to pursue this degree and meet community needs. Strategies for rural-serving community colleges may differ somewhat from their suburban and urban-serving peers, given lower population density, potentially large service areas, and the need to manage institutional resources for smaller bachelor's programs. Based on interviews and review of state policy, here are four recommendations for institutions and states as they consider the needs of rural colleges that need to build a new bachelor's program:

1. Allow rural-serving community college bachelor's programs flexibility in meeting local needs. States may, with good reason, consider enrollment numbers in degree programs when assessing program viability and institutional return on investment. However, for smaller, rural-serving colleges, critical labor market needs may arise (for instance, a need for more teachers or allied health professionals) but the number of graduates needed may be relatively low. Short of another local institution of higher education offering a similar program, the local community college may be best situated to meet these needs with a bachelor's program. State CCB program approval and review processes should take into consideration the possibility that rural CCB programs may have low enrollment but may meet a critical and sustained community need. These programs should not be penalized for right-sizing their enrollment.
2. Ensure that rural-serving colleges have the faculty and staff capacity to develop strong bachelor's programs. Developing recruitment and admissions strategies, upper-division courses, program policies, and academic and career advising requires a significant investment of time. Institutions should consider giving a lead faculty member paid release time to devote to program development, in order to start the program off strong in its first year.
3. Provide start-up resources to rural community colleges to help with high equipment and facilities costs. Equipping program facilities and classrooms to manage high-quality hy-flex and distance learning is expensive and can rarely be managed with institutional resources alone. Money is also needed to equip facilities to deliver simulated clinical experiences, which can alleviate some of the need for in-person clinical hours in allied health programs. States should consider making grants or pilot resources available for new CCB programs that require these expensive facilities and meet a critical community need.
4. Ensure that bachelor's students with clinical or practical placements have adequate financial resources to meet these requirements. Bachelor's students at rural-serving colleges may face additional costs in programs where clinical or practical placements are required. States and institutions should consider offering stipends, scholarships, or wages, where possible, to defray costs associated with meeting program clinical requirements, such as travel and relocation costs.

Acknowledgments

Engaging with leaders and conducting research on what works well for rural communities and rural-serving community colleges is an immense privilege and was only made possible with the support of many colleagues. I would first like to thank Ascendium Education Group for their generous support of this work. In addition to their financial support, this work was made stronger through the thoughtful engagement and perspective of Sue Cui and Kirstin Yeado. Several colleagues at New America kindly reviewed drafts of this brief, including Sarah Nzau, Iris Palmer, and Tiffany Thai. Sabrina Detlef provided invaluable editing support. Their comments and suggestions strengthened my thinking and writing. I also want to thank the education policy program communications team at New America, including Natalya Brill, Mandy Dean, and Katherine Portnoy. Finally, I want to thank the six individuals I interviewed for this brief. Your work to ensure your communities are well-served by bachelor's programs and your creative strategies to implement this vision inspired me, and I am honored to share your perspectives in this piece.