Copyright© 2005 by School Services of California, Inc.

                                      Volume 18                   For Publication Date: December 16, 2005             No. 25

Chancellor’s Office Reports on Impact of Fee Increases
and System Budget on Enrollment  

In a just released report, the Chancellor’s Office concludes that recent fee increases and system funding reductions have a direct and significant affect on enrollment levels. The 2003-04 State Budget included an enrollment fee increase of $7 per unit (from $11/unit to $18/unit), and the 2004-05 State Budget included an additional increase of $8/unit (from $18/unit to $26/unit).  This latest fee increase included a requirement for the Chancellor’s Office to provide a report to the Legislature on the impact of the student fee increase on enrollment.  

The report addresses the impacts of both of the recent fee increases as well as the level of state funding provided the system because, as the report concludes, both factors affect the number of students who access the system. For example, the fee increase to $18 per unit occurred when state support for the system was either flat or declining, resulting in a significant drop in student enrollment. The fee increase to $26 per unit occurred during a year when the system’s budget was increased.  Because the increases in fees and the level of system funding have not occurred independently, it is difficult to assess their individual impact on student access.

Some of the major conclusions of the report are:  

·                    Student headcount and full-time equivalent students (FTES) continued to fall even with the system budget increase for 2004-05  

·                    Student headcount is significantly below what was projected before the fee increases  

·                    The curricular areas suffering the greatest losses in FTES were:

î      physical education

î      information technology and related

î      art

î      music  

·                    The drop in physical education enrollment from special admit (K-12) students accounts for over 100,000 of the 314,000 lost headcount  

·                    The curricular areas showing the greatest increases in FTES during the same time period included:

î      real estate

î      industrial technology

î      fire technology

î      culinary arts

î      radiologic technology

î      prerequisites to allied health sciences  

·                    Over the same period the gender distribution of the student population changed very little, and the distribution of student ethnicity changed in a similar pattern to prior terms .

·                    There has been a marked increase in the percentage of younger students (ages 18-24) and a significant decrease in students of age 30 and over, as well as an increase in the percentage of students with “degree, certificate, or transfer-seeking” as their stated goal. Of the first-time and returning students, the system has seen a significant drop in the percentage that are of age 25 and over.  

·                    For the last two years, there has been a significant decline in the number of first-time students, and a smaller but related decrease in the number of continuing students.  

·                    Over the same time period, there has been an increase in the number of returning students  

·                    Student retention rates have increased, but no associated increase in student success rates is shown  

To view the contents of the full report, go to the Chancellor’s Office web site:  http://www.cccco.edu/divisions/tris/rp/reports.htm

—Sheila G. Vickers