Amarillo College seeing a flatline for spring enrollment

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - Junior colleges in the Panhandle area are seeing a new trend with spring enrollment as experts say numbers of students are trending downward despite the economy trending down.

Traditionally when the economy begins to trend downward, enrollment in junior and community colleges rise in hopes of better job opportunities.

“Historically when we’ve seen the economy kind of go down, we’ve seen an increase in enrollment of students in community colleges. We’re not seeing that right now, they haven’t seen an uptick in enrollment,” said Bob Austin, director of enrollment management at Amarillo College.

Amarillo College says this new trend stems from many jobs being available allowing more flexibility for those needing more money in their pocket.

“Even though the economy may be a bit challenged, there are plenty of jobs available and what we’re seeing in what people are reporting is that they’re getting out and getting while the getting’s good,” said Austin.

Amarillo College has seen a small drop in students this spring, but an increase in the number of full time students accrediting this to how the college advises students.

“Advising students to full time enrollment, and we created curriculum pathways where we can show students exactly which classes they’ll be taking over time will start to finish. If we put them on a pathway to full time enrollment, we’ve found that the success of those students is dramatically higher than students who are enrolled part time,” said Austin.

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