NORFOLK - More high school graduates are enrolling at Tidewater Community College before going to four-year institutions, the college’s president said Monday.
In the past five years, students using TCC as an entry point into higher education increased 14 percent, Deborah DiCroce said in her annual address at the college’s Roper Performing Arts Center.
The college reached record enrollment for the 10th consecutive year with nearly 38,000 students in 2006- 07. About 29,000 students took courses online, an increase of 4,000 from the previous year. Overall enrollment is expected to grow another 4 percent for the coming year, DiCroce said.
The college is an “on-ramp for higher education and, in particular, the bachelor’s degree,” she said, with guaranteed admissions agreements with every public four-year college and university in Virginia . That’s been the focus of the college’s marketing campaign, “From here, go anywhere, ” launched in 2003 .
Program areas with the most growth were the core general education requirements that typically compose the first two years of baccalaureate study , DiCroce said. The college also added 10 programs last year, including homeland security and emergency management, electronics technology and behavioral health care.
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