The Comprehensive Community College--Promises to Keep.

Overview & Synopsis

The philosophy of the comprehensive community colleges, as well as their promises, has resulted in a revolution in higher education. The philosophy is that everyone should have access to higher education, at a price he can afford to pay, and that curricula should be geared to the real needs of persons. Most comprehensive community colleges offer programs designed to help persons enter the work world in two years or less. The emphasis is not on the degree but on the quality of preparation that will lead to successful employment and job satisfaction. Career education is the key concept. In addition to their campus programs, community colleges take educational programs into the community. This type of college education is extremely inexpensive. It still remains to be seen whether the promises of the comprehensive community colleges--universal education, a vital interest in the individual combined with individualized instruction, meeting the needs of the college faculty and staff, pursuing accountability in a humanistic manner, keeping career education from becoming simply job training, and providing leadership in the area of human development instruction--can be kept. (DB)