Cape Cod Community College Sees Historic Enrollment Jump

News release from Cape Cod Community College.

BARNSTABLE, MA — Following a Fall semester featuring enrollment growth of 15% compared to the previous year, Cape Cod Community College’s student enrollment has continued to build on that momentum. The College has seen an increase of nearly 30% in students served for Spring 2024 which began on January 22, among the highest rates of growth in Massachusetts.

In Spring 2023, with many students finding their footing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of students served sat at 2,150. This semester, the College is serving 2,752.

“There are many reasons for our gains in student enrollment, including our certificate and degree programs and our dedicated faculty and staff empowering student success,” said John Cox, President of Cape Community College. “The launch of MassReconnect has made community college free and accessible to tens-of-thousands of prospective students, and the expansion of financial aid has allowed more dollars to flow directly to students in need. Locally, we have dedicated time and resources to ensure that our classes and programs meet the needs of modern learners in a post-pandemic world. We have state-of-the-art HyFlex technology in nearly every classroom, giving new meaning to ‘classes that work around your schedule,’ and our faculty are delivering tremendous programming in new ways.”

In January, the College saw significant gains in new students and students re-admitted after taking time off. The total number of first-time freshmen, students transferring into the College from elsewhere, and re-admitted students more than doubled from 2023.

The rise of distance learning options continues to be a driver for enrollment with more than 2,400 online course registrations for the Spring semester – two more than the total number of in-person classes, making it the most popular course type for students. The College’s specialty “HyFlex” classes, that use DTEN technology to broadcast in-person classes to students attending online, allowing them the opportunity to choose on a day-to-day basis how they attend, continues to grow with more than 1,500 course registrations.

“Looking back at our history, COVID-19 hit at a time when we had just had our first year-to-year enrollment gain in a decade,” President Cox said. “It’s taken a few years, and a lot of new evolutions, to get us to where we are now. Access and opportunity are at the heart of what we do, and we’ve worked hard to not only position ourselves for the future, but to provide a world-class higher education experience that students can take advantage of wherever they are. We’re thrilled to have so many students back in our classrooms.”

With the Spring semester in full swing, prospective students considering 4Cs can look to the College’s 7-week “Quick Term” that begins March 25, 2024, and to the Fall semester starting in September. Application to the College is free and can be filled out at any time. MassReconnect, which makes community college free for Massachusetts residents 25-and-older without a previous college degree, remains available across the Commonwealth. More information on how to take advantage of free college at 4Cs can be found here.