In 2022 and 2023, the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) contracted with NCHEMS to conduct a study funded by the Utah Legislature “to analyze current community college-related educational services and identify long-term strategies that address Utahns’ ability to access an affordable, accessible, and workforce aligned postsecondary education.”
The “community college mission” includes a wide range of services (e.g., transfer degrees, workforce-oriented degrees and certificates, noncredit offerings, high school dual enrollment, developmental education) and multiple different audiences (e.g., high school students, recent high school graduates, adults, employers). It was NCHEMS’ task to tease apart how all elements of that mission were being carried out by different types of institutions in different regions of Utah, as well as how those differences impacted both the access and success of different types of students and Utah’s ability to meet its workforce needs.
NCHEMS provided a number of recommendations for how USHE and the Utah state legislature could improve the state’s community-college-level offerings and services. USHE plans to carefully consider each of our recommendations and make improvements.
