All About Community Colleges
A Community college, as the name suggests, is the name given to a college which has been created to cater to the students of a particular community. Community colleges are also known as city colleges, country colleges, junior colleges and technical colleges. Because Community colleges exist to educate a certain community of people, they are generally run by people belonging to that community itself. Although community colleges are meant to invite and educate students from a certain local community, they also accept students belonging to other communities as well, though to a slightly lesser extent. The majority of students in community colleges will still be from that particular community. Community colleges offer academic courses in various streams of education such as lower-level tertiary courses, higher education, and vocational courses. Community colleges provide their students with certificates for higher level studies, diplomas for specialized courses and so on. The main certification that a student of a community college can receive is the Associate's degree. Community colleges are very often referred to as junior colleges. Although these two terms are similar, there is a clear difference between the 'community college' and the 'junior college'. Junior colleges are institutions that are largely run by private parties, offering two-year academic courses. As opposed to this, community colleges are publicly funded by the community members, and provide similar two year education courses for members of that particular community. Community colleges are supervised and governed by the 'American Association of Community Colleges', which was previously known by the name of the 'American Association of Junior Colleges'. Parents, students, government, educators and several such concerned groups proposed the idea of Community colleges, right back in the 19th Century. The socio-economic revolution of the early twentieth century finally led to the concept of the present two-year community college education and the four year higher university education. One of the main advantages of enrolling in a community college is that you can become a part of the several other activities taking place in the college. These will not only help you enjoy your present community college life, it will also give you a firm footing when you enter higher studies such as degree or university education. There are some community colleges that are funded by the state University, but, as mentioned earlier on, most community colleges are managed and funded by members of a local community. Such community colleges are run from the money collected by levying a property tax on the members of the community. The head of a community college is the President of that college. A community college president is selected from among the members of the community college itself. Once elected, the president then acts as the chief executive officer of the community college. His main task is to manages the general affairs of the community college and also cater to the needs of the teaching and non-teaching faculty of the college. A community college offers several advantages over regular junior colleges. Since community colleges are focused on local students and their needs, academic aspirants who can not afford campus accommodation and education can benefit immensely by attending community colleges. |
