For a Slot at a 4-Year University, Some North Carolina Students Could Soon Need a Community College Degree

May 17, 2016
  • Industry News

Spurred by language in the state’s 2015 budget, North Carolina’s public-university system is weighing a plan that would require its institutions to enroll some students only if they’re willing to go to a community college first.

With a report to state lawmakers due in early March, the idea is stirring uncertainty across a state in which the legislature and the university system have frequently been at odds in recent years.

The "NC Guaranteed Admission Program," as the proposal is called, would require the universities to identify their least-qualified admitted students, route those students to community colleges, and guarantee those who earn associate degrees within three years admission as juniors. Officials with the university and community-college systems have been charged with devising ways to carry out such a program, which would start with students entering college in the fall of 2017, and presenting their findings and recommendations to lawmakers and other state officials by March 1.

Read more at The Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/For-a-Slot-at-a-4-Year/234939