Kirkwood Marks Spring Enrollment Record

Kirkwood Community College reported another semester enrollment record with an official enrollment count of 16,233 students for the spring semester. This is an increase of 2,338 students (16.8 percent) from the same point in 2009.

College officials noted a strong rise in student counts in both part-and full-time student classifications, and a credit hour surge as well. Total credit hours were up just over 17 percent from January 2009, for a total of 163,936.

The student numbers were "welcome news" to the college and signaled continued economic challenges throughout Iowa, Kirkwood President Mick Starcevich said in a press release.

"Our student enrollments reflect the growing recognition Kirkwood enjoys as a smart, economical and practical choice for our community. We see a strong increase in students pursuing liberal arts degrees and many pre-professional transfer programs. These students will be some of the 'rising stars' at our Regents universities and partner private colleges in the next year or two. Also, there continues to be a large growth in returning adults this semester, reflecting needs in our local economy. Many are with us this year for focused job training and their desire to build new work skills," Mr. Starcevich said.

Those observations are borne out by college statistics showing close to 40 percent of the spring semester student body above the traditional college student ages of 18-22. Mr. Starcevich also said a continued focus on "our students close to home" in the spring 2010 enrollment count stand out.