Abstract

The North Carolina Community College System is faced with a major dilemma: how to reduce the time to degree and increase the community colleges’ success or graduation rates, which system-wide now stands at 30% in four years. This research was designed to gain qualitative insights from a sample of recent graduates, that is, students who managed to graduate in four or fewer years, on critical success factors. From the standpoint of strategy development, we assert that building on success may be more productive than focusing on deficits in improving community college completion rates.

• Keyword(s):
• higher education 17
• north carolina 59